with our correspondent in Abidjan, Pierre Pinto

Before beginning his remarks, Alassane Ouattara observed a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the electoral period. "Ivory Coast deserves better. The political class must learn lessons from its behavior." Denouncing the opposition's strategy of active boycott and civil disobedience, he castigates the fact that Ivorians were prevented from voting. "I am outraged!" he comments while calling on his activists to forgive.

Alassane Ouattara dwelled at length on his one-on-one meeting with Henri Konan Bédié on November 11 at the Golf Hotel, the very place where the two men spent more than four months in seclusion during the 2010-2011 crisis. The Golf Hotel, "quite a symbol," he explained.

"If we chose the Golf Hotel, for all those who are getting ideas about a transition, they can keep dreaming: there will be no transition in Ivory Coast. Before November 11 (Editor's note), I instructed Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko to resume dialogue with the PDCI-RDA and the FPI, in order to allow them to reclaim their place. Because these are truly the two parties, besides the RHDP.

We must remember what we did together for the stability and development of our country. The troublemakers, they must be set aside. They will bring nothing to Ivory Coast."

The "troublemakers," understood to mean Guillaume Soro accused of having "promised a transition sitting far along the banks of the Seine."

Finally, Alassane Ouattara is considering postponing the legislative elections scheduled for mid-December to the first quarter of next year to, he says, "ease the climate."

Since Alassane Ouattara announced his candidacy in early August, at least 85 people have been killed in political and communal violence. While the November 11 Ouattara-Bédié meeting helped reduce tensions by a notch, the opposition still has numerous activists and officials in prison, including the number 2 at the PDCI, Maurice Kakou Guikahué, and the president of the legal FPI, Pascal Affi N'guessan. Alassane Ouattara says he is ready to discuss with the PDCI and the FPI, but not about a transition.