I.Coast PM steps down as results confirm Ouattara party win

ABIDJAN (AFP) - Ivory Coast Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and his government stepped down Thursday as official results were finally issued for December's legislative election, which were swept by the president's party.

Soro stepped down in a ceremony broadcast on state television.

The final results from the Independent Electoral Commission confirmed that President Alassane Ouattara's party had won an overall majority in the election, which was boycotted by the main opposition.

Ouattara's Rally of Republicans (RDR) party won 138 of the parliament's 253 seats on 54.54 percent of the vote, according to results published by the Independent Electoral Commission.

Its ally, the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) led by former president Henri Konan Bedie, won 86 seats on 34 percent of the vote.

Independent candidates won 17 seats on 6.72 percent of the vote and the electoral commission said some of them were in talks to join a ruling coalition.

Ouattara and his allies were virtually guaranteed a vice-like grip on parliament after the election because of the boycott by the party of his toppled rival Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo is currently awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity.

His refusal to quit after his defeat in a November 2010 election triggered a conflict that left around 3,000 people dead before Ouattara took power with the support of UN and French peacekeeping forces in the west African nation.

The commission gave no results in two constituencies because of violence that marred the election, which reduced the number of seats in parliament from 255 to 253.

Bedie's PDCI was promised the post of prime minister as part of a political deal struck with the RDR in late 2010, before the second-round run-off in the presidential election between Ouattara and the then incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.