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1 December 2010
Last updated at 12:02 ET
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Damana Adia Pickass grabs and tears up the election results
Results in Ivory Coast's presidential poll have been further delayed, a day after a supporter of President Laurent Gbagbo tore up the first announcements.
Journalist were barred from entering the election commission office on Wednesday - the legal deadline for a winner to be announced.
Supporters of the opposition's Alassane Ouattara have accused the president of trying to block it because he has lost.
The election is supposed to reunify the country divided since a 2002 civil war.
The presidential camp claims that there was widespread fraud in the north - an area that voted massively for Mr Ouattara in the first round and which remains under the control of former rebels.
But this is not backed up by the main international observer missions.
Despite noting increased violence during Sunday's vote, they say things were generally democratic.
Both former colonial power France and the US have urged the Ivorian authorities to announce the results.
Chaotic scenes The BBC's John James in the main city Abidjan says the drama at the electoral commission on Tuesday evening illustrates the tension in the country, as rumours circulate alongside unofficial results from Ivory Coast's first presidential election in a decade.
The streets in the commercial district are almost entirely deserted, he says.
Ivorians have stayed at home as repeated promises from the independent electoral commission to publish the results have been broken.
The election commission spokesman Bamba Yacouba had been about to release the results from three of the country's 18 regions.
He said the results had been approved by the commission.
But Damana Adia Pickass, who represents the president on the commission, denied this, saying there had been an "electoral hold-up", as he seized the paper from Mr Yacouba's hands before tearing them up.
French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told French radio that "the results must be published today [Wednesday]".
She also said that French forces would be able to intervene if French nationals or interests were affected.
France retains close economic ties to its former colony but Mr Gbagbo's supporters have previously accused France of bias and French targets have been attacked.
Our reporter points out that the UN peacekeeping mission has copies of the results from all the polling centres and will be able to verify if what is published by the commission corresponds to 20,000 individual results.
Both sides have accused each other of intimidation and fraud and at least three people were killed on Sunday.
'Stuffed ballot boxes' The election commission had said it was to start announcing the results on Tuesday morning.
But when this did not happen, Mr Ouattara's spokesperson said the delay would "drive the country once again into chaos".
"There is an attempt to prevent the electoral commission from declaring the results. The officials from Laurent Gbagbo's camp have put up resistance," Albert Mabri Toikeusse said.
The head of Mr Gbagbo's party said they had the right to contest the vote in three regions in the north.
"There were results that were forced out of the population; these were results that are totally false, which are the fruit of stuffed ballot boxes, of fraudulent results sheets," Pascal Affi N'Guessan said.
The result is expected to be extremely close - testament to the fact these are the first open democratic elections the country has seen in 50 years since independence.
The two candidates represent the two sides of the north-south divide that exists religiously, culturally and administratively, with the northern half still controlled in part by the New Forces soldiers who took part in the 2002 rebellion, our reporter says.
The elections have been cancelled six times in the past five years.
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Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.Damana Adia Pickass grabs and tears up the election results
Results in Ivory Coast's presidential poll have been further delayed, a day after a supporter of President Laurent Gbagbo tore up the first announcements.
Journalist were barred from entering the election commission office on Wednesday - the legal deadline for a winner to be announced.
Supporters of the opposition's Alassane Ouattara have accused the president of trying to block it because he has lost.
The election is supposed to reunify the country divided since a 2002 civil war.
The presidential camp claims that there was widespread fraud in the north - an area that voted massively for Mr Ouattara in the first round and which remains under the control of former rebels.
But this is not backed up by the main international observer missions.
Despite noting increased violence during Sunday's vote, they say things were generally democratic.
Both former colonial power France and the US have urged the Ivorian authorities to announce the results.
Chaotic scenes The BBC's John James in the main city Abidjan says the drama at the electoral commission on Tuesday evening illustrates the tension in the country, as rumours circulate alongside unofficial results from Ivory Coast's first presidential election in a decade.
The streets in the commercial district are almost entirely deserted, he says.
Ivorians have stayed at home as repeated promises from the independent electoral commission to publish the results have been broken.
The election commission spokesman Bamba Yacouba had been about to release the results from three of the country's 18 regions.
He said the results had been approved by the commission.
But Damana Adia Pickass, who represents the president on the commission, denied this, saying there had been an "electoral hold-up", as he seized the paper from Mr Yacouba's hands before tearing them up.
French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told French radio that "the results must be published today [Wednesday]".
She also said that French forces would be able to intervene if French nationals or interests were affected.
France retains close economic ties to its former colony but Mr Gbagbo's supporters have previously accused France of bias and French targets have been attacked.
Our reporter points out that the UN peacekeeping mission has copies of the results from all the polling centres and will be able to verify if what is published by the commission corresponds to 20,000 individual results.
Both sides have accused each other of intimidation and fraud and at least three people were killed on Sunday.
'Stuffed ballot boxes' The election commission had said it was to start announcing the results on Tuesday morning.
But when this did not happen, Mr Ouattara's spokesperson said the delay would "drive the country once again into chaos".
"There is an attempt to prevent the electoral commission from declaring the results. The officials from Laurent Gbagbo's camp have put up resistance," Albert Mabri Toikeusse said.
The head of Mr Gbagbo's party said they had the right to contest the vote in three regions in the north.
"There were results that were forced out of the population; these were results that are totally false, which are the fruit of stuffed ballot boxes, of fraudulent results sheets," Pascal Affi N'Guessan said.
The result is expected to be extremely close - testament to the fact these are the first open democratic elections the country has seen in 50 years since independence.
The two candidates represent the two sides of the north-south divide that exists religiously, culturally and administratively, with the northern half still controlled in part by the New Forces soldiers who took part in the 2002 rebellion, our reporter says.
The elections have been cancelled six times in the past five years.
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