Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo told former South African president Thabo Mbeki last week that Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential election had been rigged and that the outcome, which favoured his rival, Alassane Ouattara, could not be trusted, according to an official with intimate knowledge of Mbeki’s mediation mission.
The official was defending Mbeki against charges that he was trying to accommodate an electorally defeated African leader clinging to power, rather than upholding democratic principles as he had done in Zimbabwe.
The United Nations, African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) have declared Ouattara the winner, based on the assessment of Côte d’Ivoire’s Independent Electoral Commission. The South African government has appealed to Ggagbo to respect the views of these bodies.
Mbeki was sent by the head of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping, to mediate between the two leaders after both declared themselves election winners.
Ouattara’s detractors say he is a puppet of France, the former colonial power, because some of his guards are French, while Gbagbo’s detractors say the former president cannot accept the loss of power.
Government in the West African country has come to a virtual standstill pending the settlement of the dispute. It is geographically split, with Gbagbo and his supporters controlling the west, including the capital, Yamoussoukro, and the commercial capital, Abidjan, and Ouattara the east.
According to a source, Abidjan airport is run by Gbagbo’s supporters, who also control border posts, the public service, police and army. Defence force generals have declared they will not salute Ouattara.
Irregularities
The source also said Gbagbo told Mbeki that there had been a number of irregularities in balloting: agents representing him were barred from Ouattara’s strongholds, signatures on ballot slips showing that all parties agreed with the process and outcome were forged, while the head of the IEC, Youssouf Bakayoko, announced the results at Ouattara’s election headquarters, the Golf Hotel in Abidjan.
At his meeting with Mbeki, Ouattara raised similar complaints, claiming, for example, that the IEC had discounted the votes from exiled Ivorians in France, which would probably have favoured him.
The two leaders both had video footage of the violent intimidation of voters and of documents carrying forged signatures.
“Each of them had their evidence,” the source told the Mail & Guardian. “For Mbeki, the truth lies somewhere in between.” He would, therefore, recommend that the AU should not simply declare Ouattara the outright winner.
“What we know is that whatever comes out of this, it will be a mess. It will destabilise the whole region.”
A complicating factor was that the Ivorian IEC was made up of members of political parties and was, therefore, not independent. Mbeki warned the Ivorians about this in 2005 when they signed an agreement in Pretoria to work together, but they ignored him.