Two months after President Laurent Gbagbo demanded the removal of the UN High Representative for Elections, the Security Council passed a resolution on 16 July that terminated the post.

“The UN will still certify the elections and this is what has been paramount for us,” a Western diplomat who speaks only on condition of anonymity told IRIN.

The responsibilities for overseeing the election process will now go to the special representative for the UN Secretary General (SRSG). The acting SRSG is Abou Moussa.

Officials with the UN Mission in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI) reached by IRIN on 16 July would not comment on the qualitative difference between retaining the post of High Representative for Elections and transferring its functions to the SRSG’s office. UNOCI spokesman Hamadoun Toure said the SRSG will set up a special technical unit for certifying the stages of the elections process.

Opposition parties and diplomats expressed alarm when President Gbagbo in May called for the removal of the UN’s top election official, Gerard Stoudmann.

The political opposition and donors have said that the only way to ensure fair and credible elections was to have the UN oversee the process and certify the polls.

Cote d’Ivoire has planned and cancelled presidential elections several times since 2002, when an attempted coup split the country between a rebel-held north and government-controlled south.

The 16 July Security Council resolution extended UNOCI’s mandate until 15 January 2008 in part to oversee the election process.

According to diplomats and observers, the polls require extensive preparations and the new peace plan’s target of holding elections in early 2008 is probably unachievable.