Popular revolt sweeps Ivory Coast, Guei flees

Sustained shooting, punctuated by the occasional grenade blast, rocked Abidjan’s Plateau administrative district for much of the morning.

Gbagbo loyalists, joined by soldiers and paramilitarygendarmes in places, stood their ground, singing in the midst of a hail of gunfire.

"We want Gbagbo to set us free," Didier, 31, an unemployed computer technician said, calling for jobs for the young. "Guei is a putschist. He made a second coup D’etat."

Guei, 59, called Sunday’s presidential election and a parliamentary election set for December 10 to return the country to constitutional rule following the coup.

His decision to stand himself followed the course taken by numerous African leaders who came to power in a coup and went on to seek legitimacy through the ballot box.

As leading members of his ruling junta and transitional government abandoned him, airport and military sources said that he had left by helicopter — possibly for Liberia or Benin.

Communication Minister Henri Sama, a junta member, resigned saying Gbagbo had won Sunday’s election and urging Guei "to spare Ivory Coast a bloodbath" and step down.

Guei’s Prime Minister, Seydou Diarra, said that voting figures from Sunday’s poll showed Gbagbo was the winner. "We have to recognise Gbagbo’s victory. It is legal," he said.

There was no immediate word on the death toll but diplomats said at least 20 protesters had bullet wounds. Gbagbo aides put the death toll from Tuesday’s protests at 11.

Protesters spoke of fresh deaths on Wednesday from gunshot wounds.

The protests began on Tuesday after Guei dissolved the National Electoral Commission and proclaimed himself winner of the election with 52.72 percent of the vote. They spread to towns around the country.

Security sources said gendarmes, who rallied to Gbagbo, took control of the television station.

Protesters surrounded the radio station. One report said that gendarmes had attacked the presidential palace, where a group of hard-core Guei loyalists were holed up.

Earlier, rival army factions fought an inconclusive night-time battle on the outskirts of Abidjan at the key military base of Akouedo, where the country’s first coup began last December. Soldiers who staged the coup put Guei in power.

At the time, the country was under an overnight curfew, which ended at 6 a.M. (0600 GMT).

Gbagbo, 55, led the fight that brought multi-party politics to the world’s top cocoa producer in 1990.

Port and industry sources in the western town of San Pedro, which ships about half of the country’s cocoa, said main roads there had been blocked by protesters. Cocoa prices moved little.

Before the election, Gbagbo had threatened Belgrade-style popular protests if he was cheated of victory.

Gbagbo and Guei were the only serious contenders in the poll after the supreme court barred former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara and other political heavyweights from running under a new constitution approved in a July referendum.

As the protesters and forces loyal to Gbagbo took control of the city, Ouattara’s supporters began their own protest March — calling for a new election.