Ivory Coast: One Nation, Two Presidents

By Ben Nanaghan

The build-up to the 2010 Ivorian Presidential election was as dramatic as the election itself. The election which produced two presidents, two prime  ministers, two governments, two armies and two capitals will go down in Ivorian political history, paradoxically as one of the freest and fairest, ever held  in the world’s greatest cocoa producing country.

Cote d’Ivoire has had its fair share of bloodshed, and coups even within the short period of a decade. In 1999 the ever restive Ivorian military struck and  ended civilian rule. Henry Konan Bedie, one of the present presidential candidates who lost out in the first round of the 31October 2010 presidential  election was then prime minister.

Again in 2002, the coupists struck but this time, President Laurent Gbagbo was lucky as the coup was suppressed in a bloody military operation that finally  plunged the country into a civil war whose scars are still politically evident to date.

The Ivorian presidential election, which was scheduled for 2005 after the civil war ended officially in 2004, has been rescheduled and postponed six times in  the last five years. This is due to logistic reasons associated with post civil war trauma, difficulties involved in the organization and preparation for the  election, formulation of ententes for the integration and rehabilitation of the New Forces (armed former rebels), voters census and registration and most  importantly funding for the election which was estimated at over 100 billion CFA francs.

Funding of the Ivorian election has been solely borne by the international community. On May 7, 2008, several other countries including France, Japan and the  USA announced that they were providing CFA francs 115 billion in aid money and the process of resolving the trauma of the civil war.

On June 14, 2008, Bernard Koucher the French Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Cote d’Ivoire to meet with Gbagbo and Ouattara among others to help lobby  African and international donors for the Ivorian election. He also told the bewildered audience that “France will not send any more of its own money”.

Due to the massive polarization of the country as a result of the civil war, there was more work to be done besides voters’ census and registration. The most  prominent of these was the disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of the new forces or former rebels into the main stream of Ivorian  life. Gen. Sonmaila Bakayoko of the New Forces revealed in September 2008 that about 43,000 former rebel soldiers would be rehabilitated out of whom 22000  would receive funding for micro-projects while the others would be absorbed into the Ivorian National Army or National Civil Service.

After a mutiny in Vavoua and Seguela on June 28, 2008 within the Rebel Command, President Laurent Gbagbo’s government announced on June 30th that it did not  have enough funds to complete the disarmament and implementation of the peace agreement.

The United Nations Special Representative to Cote d’Ivoire, Choi Young-Jin, therefore initiated a micro project programme for 1,000 members of the new forces  who were not integrated into the Ivorian army on August 15, 2008.

According to him this will “create a stable security environment for free and transparent elections by re-introducing ex-fighters socially and economically  back into their old communities”. The cost of this programme was estimated at 44.4billion CFA francs and funding was partially provided by the World Bank and  the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

So, after long delays, procrastinations and a veiled unwillingness, President Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent aspirant of the ruling Ivorian Popular Front  (FPI) finally accepted Octobober 31, 2010 as election date. President Gbagbo who became president in a highly disputed and inconclusive election in 2000  weathered the storm until civil war broke out in 2002. President Gbagbo in a rare and uncanny feat of statesmanship held on to power through the civil war  which officially ended in 2004- to date without winning any election.

President Gbagbo’s two main rivals are Alassane Ouattara representing the Rally of the Republicans (RDR) and Bernard Konan Bedie.

Alassane Ouattara who was a former PM under President Houphoet Boigny from 1990-1993 has a solid block support from his native Northern Region. He also has  the support of the New Forces.

The 3rd main candidate is Bernard Konan Bedie who was also Prime Minister from 1993-1999 when his regime was terminated by a coup. He is the candidate for  the Democratic  Party of Cote d’Ivoire African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA). Bedie and Ouattara, who contested separately in the first round, however, agreed  to back each other if one of them advanced into the second round. And so it  happened.

After the first round of the October 31, 2010 Election Laurent Gbagbo secured 1,756,504 popular votes or 38.4% of total votes while Alassane Ouattara got  1,481,091 of popular votes or 32.07%.

However at the second round of voting Alassane Ouattara benefited immensely from his entente with Bernard Bedie and the command of the New Forces.

In the 2nd round of elections which held on 28 November 2010, the first round results were reversed in faovur of Ouattara, scoring 54.1% against Laurent  Gbagbo’s 45.9% but on 30 November 2010 during the announcement of results by the Independent Electoral Commission of Cote d’Ivoire (CEI) was disrupted by  Laurent Gbagbo’s thugs who took the result sheets from Bamba Yacouba in the glare of the world’s live media and in the presence of Laurent Gbagbo’s Army and  security agents. The CEI President Youssouf Bakayoko publicly announced the official provisional result showing that Alassane Ouattara had won the election.  Bakayoko confirmed that voting turn out was 81.09% and confirmed Alassane Ouattara’s victory by 54.1% votes  against Laurent Gbagbo’s 45.9%. This  announcement by Ouattara took place at a venue heavily guarded by the United Nations Peace Keeping Force, the same hotel where the new President was sworn-in  and which he had used as his base in Abidjan.

In order to legitimize the victory of Laurent Gbagbo, Paul Yao N’Dre, President of the constitutional council and a long time personal friend and ally of  Gbagbo announced  on radio on December 3rd 2010 that over 1000 votes in the North belonging to Alassane Ouattara had been voided due to fraud. This, he said,  has tilted the scale in favour of his friend and incumbent President, Laurent Gbagbo.

At the National Stadium in Abidjan Laurent Gbagbo was sworn-in for another 5 years on the strength of the constitutional council’s deliberate concocted  figures read on the airwaves by its President.

Shortly after Gbagbo’s swearing in ceremony, President Alassane Ouattara was also sworn-in in a nearby hotel under the heavily guarded auspices of  a 10,000  United Nations Peace Keeping Force.

Reactions from the international Community was spontaneous. The African Union immediately suspended Cote d’Ivoire until Ouattara was sworn-in as President.  The European Union threatened to place travel ban and freeze assets of members of Gbagbo’s illegal government. The Economic Community of West African States  (ECOWAS) took the same stance as the African Union. The United States of America advised Gbagbo to step down or face the consequences. The United Nations  threat was the most direct and potent but veiled as it has vowed to defend Alassane Ouattara at all costs. The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon,  has warned of severe consequences if United Nations Peace Keeping Troops were attacked.

But in spite of all these threats and advice, President Laurent Gbagbo has defied the whole world. Even when Mr. Thabo Nbeki (former South African President)  was sent by the AU to mediate in the crisis, Gbagbo refused to yield to reason and fair play.

During his swearing-in ceremony on 4 December 2010, Gbagbo defiantly declared, “I will continue to work with all the countries of the world but I will never  give up our sovereignty”. How naïve of Laurent Gbagbo to talk of “our sovereignty”. Which sovereignty is Gbagbo talking about.

Is Laurent Gbagbo referring to Domestic sovereignty? Is he talking about external sovereignty? Or is it fiscal sovereignty. Laurent Gbagbo has no claim to  any form of sovereignty. It is true that theoretically a state has “absolute authority and perpetual power over its citizens and subjects unrestrained by  (external) law”.

Apart from the sanctity of domestic or internal sovereignty, external sovereignty guarantees the sovereignty or non interference of the domestic policies of  independent states (however, small or weak they may be) from the more powerful or even super power states. External sovereignty implies that all independent  states are equal no matter their geographical size, military capabilities, population and economic status.

Supremacy is an aspect of sovereignty which states that in theory, a sovereign state is not bound by any other constitutional arrangement or authority  outside its own territory. That is, an independent state is deemed to be subject to no hindrance in the formulation of both its domestic and foreign  policies. It is assumed to be the sole determinant of and influence over its own policies. That is in theory.

Gbagbo cannot now use sovereignty as escapism. Has the Ivorian President forgotten the old adage that, “he who pays the piper dictates the tune”?

The United Nations has emphatically posited that it will protect President Alassane Ouattara “at all costs”. Gbagbo at a meeting with the UN Security Council  on June 9, 2008 appealed to the UN to play a larger role in financing the election. In fact the Ivorian elections were wholly sponsored and paid for by  France, Japan, USA, the United Nations and the World Bank. Cote d’ Ivoire has compromised its sovereignty for a mess of pottage by relinquishing its fiscal  sovereignty to the United Nations and its satellite states.

Gbagbo should take a cue from his colonial master-France. In the French run-off election of May 2007 Nickolas Sarkozy polled 53% votes while Mrs. Sagolene  Royale had 47%. And Nickolas Sarkozy was immediately declared president.

Gbagbo should give peace a chance to avoid a looming bloodshed which will only claim the lives of the poor masses. If not for mischief,  why did the  constitutional council wait till 3rd December 2010 before discovering fraudulent votes in the Northern constituency of Alassane Ouattara?

The AU, ECOWAS, United Nations, France, USA, Japan and Britain should tighten the noose on Laurent Gbagbo to step down for the rightful winner of the  November 28, 2010 presidential run-off election.

Africa cannot afford another carnage. Africa cannot afford another Hutu and Tutsi war. Enough is enough.

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