Thousands of opposition-party supporters rallied yesterday to protest the one-year extension of Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo's governing mandate, calling on the leader of the civil-war-divided country to step down immediately.

Hordes of young men spilled from the soccer stadium rally into a nearby six-lane highway, erecting roadblocks of rocks and overturned tables raising the possibility of a showdown with security forces who have vowed to enforce a ban on street demonstrations.

The United Nations has backed the one-year emergency extension of Gbagbo's mandate, which expired this month. Elections were to be held yesterday but Gbagbo canceled the vote, saying the country still riven by civil war isn't ready.

About 8,000 opposition supporters inside the stadium clamored for Gbagbo's immediate departure, watched by dozens of paramilitary police carrying tear-gas grenades.

"Gbagbo is no longer president, that's why we're here today," said Adama Karamoko, an official of one of the political blocs organizing the rally. "He's incapable of organizing elections so he can't sit there any longer."

"Goodbye, goodbye, Gbagbo's going!" shouted the crowds, including large numbers of the disaffected young men that have helped drive the conflict in the world's largest cocoa producer and one-time anchor of stability for West Africa.

Attackers swinging machetes and clubs smashed windows of a bus carrying opposition supporters on their way to the stadium, lightly injuring one passenger, said Ali Sadia, who was on the bus.

Later in the day, soldiers and riot police fired warning shots to stop the demonstrators from advancing towards the city center and the presidential palace.

The demonstrators scattered shortly after leaving the sports stadium. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Last week, Gbagbo called on security forces to enforce a ban on street demonstrations over the tense weekend. The rally inside the soccer stadium in the main government-held city of Abidjan is lawful.
 
Similar protests were under way yesterday in the rebel-held north, with thousands in the streets of the cities of Bouake and Korhogo.

The opposition parties and rebels say Gbagbo's objective is to keep his grip on power. Gbagbo says he only wants to stay in power to arrange elections, and that the constitution gives him the right to do so.

Gbagbo was scheduled to address the nation Sunday evening (local time) to explain why elections had to be canceled, said his spokesman, Desire Tagro. "He'll make a speech and he'll stay in power," Tagro said.

Once a bastion of peace in a region beset by war and relatively prosperous because of cocoa, Cote d'Ivoire has been in decline since the late General Robert Guei seized power in a 1999 coup d'etat.

Guei held promised elections in October 2000, but tried to stop vote-counting and declared himself the winner. The move sparked a popular uprising that brought Gbagbo, who ran against him, to power.

After more failed uprisings and street violence, renegade soldiers launched a 2002 coup attempt that left the country split between a rebel-controlled north and a government-controlled south. About 6,000 UN peacekeepers and 4,000 French troops separate the two sides.

(China Daily October 31, 2005)