Ivory Coast crisis - A guide to key players

30 December 2010 A political crisis is intensifying in Ivory Coast after disputed elections last month, when the constitutional council overturned the result and ruled that incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo was the winner, rather than his rival, Alassane Ouattara. The BBC looks at the main characters involved in the dispute. Laurent Gbagbo: Laurent Gbagbo cut his political teeth in the trade union movement and plays heavily on his reputation as the main opposition figure to former President Felix Houphouet-Boigny's one-party state. In person he has a broad smile and an easy laugh, and is a born communicator, frequently making use of metaphors from Ivorian daily life. Mr Gbagbo says the dispute is about a fight for Ivorian (and indeed African) sovereignty and accuses the French and Americans of having it in for him; Ivory Coast is the nation blessed by God and neo-colonialists want to control for its cocoa and oil fields, he says. Still, the man who campaigned under the slogan "we win or we win", can be a stubborn political player and, his opponents claim, has links to violent militia groups like the students' union, the Fesci, the Young Patriots, and death squads, despite his reputation as a peaceful, Sorbonne-educated socialist. He has also earned himself the nickname "the baker" for his ability to "roll his opponents in the flour", after showing an uncanny knack of coming out on top in any political tussle. Alassane Ouattara: The technocrat studied in the United States and then spent most of his career abroad, working for the West African Central Bank, where he became governor, and the International Monetary Fund, where he was a deputy managing director. When former President Houphouet-Boigny called the economist to help rescue Ivory Coast from economic stagnation, he was seen locally as an international technocrat. However, after Mr Houphouet-Boigny's death, Mr Ouattara developed political ambitions, and the government of former President Henri Konan Bedie played the nationalist card, exploiting Mr Ouattara's links to neighbouring Burkina Faso to sideline him from presidential contests. He has a reputation as a hard-worker, keen on transparency and good governance. But his rivals criticise him for being too Western, and say he backed the 2002 coup d'etat attempt - something he denies. Guillaume Soro: The former leader of the Fesci student movement in the 1990s, Mr Soro became the young face of the 2002 rebellion. Initially dismissed as a puppet of mysterious powers, he has shown himself to be a skilled political operator, becoming prime minister in 2007 in a power-sharing deal with Mr Gbagbo. The 38-year-old tried to shed his image as a rebel by attempting to become an impartial actor, organising presidential elections in which he was too young to take part - the minimum age in Ivory Coast is 40. Many wondered what his post-election role would be, but in the dispute he has kept the job of prime minister in Mr Ouattara's new government, and continues to exercise leadership over the former rebels that still control the northern half of the country. Charles Ble Goude: Charles Ble Goude took over from Mr Soro at the head of the Fesci movement at a time when the movement was getting increasingly violent. Unlike Mr Soro, he has remained loyal to Mr Gbagbo, becoming his youth leader. He is known for his firebrand speeches denouncing plots by France and other Western powers. The former English student was put under UN sanctions after being accused of inciting attacks against UN personnel. Now Mr Gbagbo's youth minister, he has become a regular on state TV, insisting he is 100% minister and 100% general of the streets. Critics wonder if he can still prove an effective mobiliser, with some critics within his own Young Patriots movement saying he has grown rich by exploiting the city's unemployed youth. Source: BBC News (bbc.co.uk/news)