Ivory Coast urged to hold fair elections

With Ivory Coast settled on its new president, a freely elected Parliament is needed to ensure the country's political stability, a U.N. envoy said. Ivory Coast holds parliamentary election in December. Bert Koenders, the U.N. special envoy to Ivory Coast, said following meetings with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara upcoming elections must be transparent. "Today, in this country, there is an elected president," Koenders said in a statement. "What we now need is a freely elected Parliament with various political views resulting from the legislative elections." Elections in November 2010 were meant to unite a country divided between north and south by civil war. Ouattara was hailed as the eventual winner, though Laurent Gbagbo refused to surrender power. Gbagbo was arrested with the help of French forces in April, but not before the election fallout pushed the country to the brink of civil war. Human-rights groups have said both sides to the conflict likely committed atrocities during the post-election conflict. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees noted it worked alongside Liberian refugee commissions to help repatriate more than 100 Ivorians who fled the post-election crisis. Thousands were killed in the conflict that followed November elections. Ouattara has asked the International Criminal Court to probe the violence.