Abidjan, Ivory Coast (CNN) -- Former South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Ivory Coast Sunday on an emergency mission as two men claimed to be president of the west African nation.
Incumbent Laurent Gbagbo defied international appeals to step aside and was sworn in Saturday as the new president in a formal ceremony inside the presidential palace that was broadcast live on television.
Less than an hour-and-a-half later, his rival, Alassane Ouattara, told reporters that he, too, had taken the oath of office and asked Prime Minister Soro Guillaume to form a new government.
Mbeki, sent by the African Union, met with Gbagbo and the U.N. special envoy to the country in Abidjan, before meeting with Ouattara, according to Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga.
The capital Abidjan has remained calm so far. A 7 p.m. curfew contributed to an eerie calm Saturday evening.
But the political chaos heightened fears that the Ivory Coast -- known as Cote d'Ivoire in French -- would once again plunge into the unrest and bloodshed suffered after a civil war broke out in 2002.
The Constitutional Council declared Gbagbo the winner Friday, invalidating earlier results from the Independent Electoral Commission which handed Ouattara the victory with 54.1% of the vote.
The Constitutional Council said Gbagbo had won the election with 51.45% of the vote to Ouattara's 48.55%. It tossed out votes it said were marred by fraud in northern regions that were considered Ouattara strongholds. CNN
