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| - Former Ivory Coast rebel chief Guillaume Soro, exiled in France, on Wednesday called on his country's army to "act" after President Alassane Ouattara's reelection to a third term which opponents reject as illegal. The West African country is caught in a deadlock after Ouattara won Saturday's election by landslide, but opposition leaders said they would establish a rival "transitional government" after boycotting the ballot. "I call on you soldiers, non-commissioned officers, officers and superior officers, to act to reestablish peace and harmony, to restore the nobility of our constitution," Soro said in a statement he read on social media. Soro once helped Ouattara to power during a 2010-2011 crisis, but turned against him and remains an influential figure in Ivorian politics from abroad. The election crisis erupted in August when Ouattara said he would run again, angering opponents who said his bid would break with the country's two-term presidential limit. Ouattara says a 2016 reform allows him to run for a third term. He won the election by more than 90 percent. But security forces have surrounded the houses of opposition leaders after officials accused them of plotting acts of sedition against the government. Soro was rebel chief during a 2002 civil war that split Ivory Coast in two, north to the rebels and south to forces of then president Laurent Gbagbo. After the 2011 crisis, Soro's New Forces rebels were mostly integrated in the Ivory Coast military. In 2017, some of those ex-rebels inside the army mutinied over their pay and conditions. de-pma/tgb
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