Seven years after it was torn asunder by a vicious civil war, Côte d’Ivoire ‘s five million voters go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election aimed at reuniting the world’s top cocoa producer.
The vote pits one of the gritty survivors of African politics, strongman Laurent Gbagbo, against his oldest political rivals, former president Henri Konan Bedie (76) and former prime minister Alassane Ouattara.
Gbagbo, elected in 2000, is still in power despite his mandate ending five years ago, with elections repeatedly postponed amid rows over rebel disarmament and voter registration.
The country is divided in two, with UN and French peacekeepers patrolling the buffer zone between the north, held by the former New Forces rebels, and Gbagbo’s government-controlled south.
But despite occasional deadly outbreaks of violence, a March 2007 peace accord has held, and a disarmament programme has meant that areas of the north have gradually returned to government control.
Nevertheless, with the long-delayed elections tantalisingly close, the threat of violence remains.
The head of the armed forces, General Philippe Mangou, issued a statement on Wednesday to “severely warn possible troublemakers and their leaders in this crucial and sensitive period in the history of Côte d’Ivoire” that there would be no hiding place in the event of an attempt to derail the vote.
“Those who subscribe to trouble and violence” will not be able “to flee the country after having sparked fire … [as] the borders will be closed”, he said in Abidjan, denouncing acts by “certain militants of political parties”.
Fresh legitimacy
Thousands of troops are being deployed across the country to ensure security for the poll, although campaigning has largely gone peacefully.
Gbagbo (65), after a decade of rule, is hoping to secure fresh legitimacy at home and abroad, five years after his last mandate ran out.
Bedie, who succeeded Houphouet-Boigny as president, is seeking a comeback after being overthrown in the country’s first military coup in 1999.
Ouattara, a 68-year-old former prime minister, is another with a score to settle, after being excluded from the elections in 2000 amid questions over his Ivorian nationality.
Côte d’Ivoire was rocked by a military putsch in 1999, then a foiled coup bid against Gbagbo in 2002 that escalated into a full-scale civil war. Thousands were killed in the conflict.
Once hailed as a model of stability, the country has drifted through years of political unrest, squandering the gains made during the “Ivorian miracle” brought about by “father of the nation” president Felix Houphouet-Boigny, ruler from independence from France in 1960 to his death in 1993.
National identity runs close to the bone in Côte d’Ivoire , whose cotton and cocoa production draw migrants from across the region, and amid ongoing discontent among northern Muslims who have traditionally felt discriminated against by the southern Christian power base.
Fragile peace
The 2007 peace accord signed in Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou with Gbagbo led to former New Forces rebel chief Guillaume Soro being appointed prime minister, a first power-sharing step on the laborious path towards Sunday’s elections.
But the peace has remained fragile. Further strife erupted in February this year when voter registration was suspended indefinitely after violent protests over the government’s handling of the process.
The voters’ list was finally adopted last month, having set off passions over nationalism and identity of the kind that cost Ouattara his run at the presidency in 2000.
The international community, including the UN Security Council, has encouraged the rival parties to ensure the election was “open, free, fair and transparent”.
The Security Council earlier this month extended arms and diamonds trade embargoes against the country, but said they could be eased or lifted if the presidential election goes well. — AFP