Ivory Coast poll winner tries to govern from hotel

• Alassane Ouattara,  was declared winner of last month's presidential election by his country's election commission in an outcome certified by the United Nations. He was recognised as the legal President by the United States, the European Union, former colonial ruler France and the African Union. Just about the only world leader who has not acknowledged his victory is the one occupying the presidential palace across town.
• He  is trying to govern a troubled nation from a hotel room just big enough to hold a bed and a desk,
• Alassane Ouattara does not have access to the presidential palace, so he holds Cabinet meetings in a tent on the hotel lawn. His administration has taken over the hotel manager's office, where the fax machine is used to communicate with embassies abroad.
• Despite near-universal condemnation, Mr. Gbagbo, the old president who lost election, has turned his back on the world since the country's constitutional council led by one of his close advisers overturned the results and declared him the winner by throwing out the votes from provinces where Mr. Ouattara had won a majority. He imposed a curfew, sealed the country's borders and imposed a media blackout by cutting off foreign TV and radio channels.
• He has ignored pleas to step down from close friends and political heavyweights alike, going so far as to refuse a telephone call last weekend from U.S. President Barack Obama, who was told that the sitting President was "resting".