Ex-president Gbagbo's party to boycott I.Coast local poll
Laurent Gbagbo appears before the International Criminal Court in The Hague on December 5, 2011. By Peter Dejong (ANP/AFP/File)
ABIDJAN (AFP) - Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo's party announced Thursday it would boycott regional and local elections scheduled for April 21, saying the vote would not be fair.
"No member of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) should take part in any way in these elections," said the chief opposition party's spokesman and interim secretary general, Richard Kodjo, amid lingering tensions from a post-election standoff between Gbagbo and current President Alassane Ouattara in 2010-2011 that killed some 3,000 people.