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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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Ivory Coast: Election Critique
Any links to other sites in this file from 1995 are not clickable,
given the difficulty in maintaining up-to-date links in old files.
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Ivory Coast: Election Critique
Date Distributed (ymd): 951017
With presidential elections scheduled for Sunday, October 22,
in the Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire), all major opposition parties
are boycotting the poll in protest and say they will also
boycott the parliamentary elections next month. The
reelection of President Bedie, successor after long-term
President Houphouet-Boigny two years ago, is assured. In
addition to the lack of an independent electoral commission,
the center point of opposition protest is the electoral code,
which alters the previous practice of allowing African
residents of non-Ivorian origin (an estimated 40% of the
population) to vote.
The code also excluded from candidacy a leading rival for the
Presidency, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara.
Ouattara's father was born in Burkina Faso, and he has been
resident outside the country since 1994, as Deputy Director of
the International Monetary Fund in Washington, both bars
against candidacy in the new electoral code.
The following documents include an open letter from opposition
representatives in Washington, and an earlier evaluation, by
the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, of the
electoral code revision process.
Open Letter from Front Populaire Ivoirien and Rassemblement
des Republicains, September 15, 1995
General elections in Ivory Coast are scheduled for the last
quarter of 1995. In December 1994, however, President Henry
Konan Bedie, appointed one year earlier to complete the term
of the deceased President Houphouet-Boigny until the 1995
elections, approved a new electoral code. This code, under
the cover of the fuzzy concept of "Ivoirite," is aimed at
destroying the multi-ethnic social fabric of the Ivorian
nation. If nothing is done immediately to minimize the impact
of this devastating electoral code, the foreseeable
consequences will be extremely dangerous for the survival of
this multi-ethnic West African nation of 14 million
inhabitants with 4 million Africans of non-Ivorian origin.
Although only a few African scholars, particularly Ivorian
scholars, have stood up vigorously against this electoral law,
Ivorian religious leaders, both Christian and Muslim, have
asked the Bedie government to revise the text to remove the
openly exclusive and xenophobic tone. The electoral code,
written by the PDCI (the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast),
the party in power, with the approval of President Bedie, is
discriminatory against some Ivorians. Its principal objective
is to sow discord and to spread hate among the different
ethnic groups that make up the nation.
The code fosters unfairness against some targeted ethnic
groups (the Abbey, the Agni, the Bete, the Dioula), who are
considered to be dangerous because they could play a crucial
role in countering Mr. Bedie's bid to capture the highest
political power in Ivory Coast for the next five years. If
enforced, this law would destroy--for the sake of winning a
presidential bid--a thirty-year-old history of construction of
the Ivorian nation that has made the Ivory Coast a genuine
model of integration in West Africa. Indeed, all West African
nations have a fairly important community of their own peoples
married or living as immigrants in Ivory Coast and this is
unique on the African continent.
President Bedie has bluntly stated that his electoral code was
to remain, despite urgent requests from Ivorian religious
dignitaries, from opposition leadership and from the majority
of the Ivorian people. Given the adamant refusal by President
Bedie and the PDCI to agree upon a bipartisan agenda--i.e. an
amendment to the electoral code and agreement on a fully
independent electoral commission, the Republican Front, a
coalition of the seven major opposition parties, decided upon
a course of actions to bring the Bedie administration to the
negotiations table. But in response, the Bedie administration
banned for a period of three months "all marches and sit-ins
in all streets and public squares." This means that the
wrestling match between the PDCI and other legal political
powers is now underway. This may lead to bloodshed, because
the Ivorian forces of change are determined not to allow the
massive electoral frauds of 1990 go unchecked this election
year.
Therefore, if nothing is done immediately, we will be making
our way towards an almost certain social explosion in the
months ahead. The specter of Liberia, a neighboring country
which might have been saved from the present human tragedy if
one had acted in time, can only haunt the spirits of all those
who love the Ivory Coast and who wish it to avoid the all too-
common fate of civil war.
That is why we would like to call on the great democratic
institution of the American Congress and the Clinton
Administration to help Mr. Bedie understand that his electoral
code in its current form and the rejection of a fully
independent electoral committee are a total denial of the rule
of law for free and open elections. This is contrary to what
the Ivory Coast authorities agreed in finally welcoming a
multi-party system of governance in May 1990. The general
elections scheduled for October 22 should be postponed for six
months. The delay would allow the Government and the
Opposition to work out together an electoral system fair to
both. The entire Ivorian population will support the
electoral lists that came out of the last census only if
Opposition parties participate in setting up a genuine
independent national electoral commission.
On behalf of the Ivorian Popular Front: Pascal D. Kokora,
Ph.D. On behalf of the Republican Rally, Balla Sidibe.
c/o P.O. Box 18110, Washington, DC 20036.
Fax: (202) 234-6074.
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Excerpts from election planning report of the International
Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) (Elections Today, May
1995, pp. 23, 25)
IFES, 1101 15th St. NW, 3rd Fl., Washington, DC 20005. Tel:
(202) 828-8507; Fax: (202) 452-0804.
IFES sent a four-person technical team to Abidjan, Cote
d'Ivoire from Oct. 19 to Nov. 4, 1994. The team's primary
objective was the review of the ongoing voters registry
revision in preparation for national elections scheduled for
1995. ...
After 35 years of national independence, the 1995 national
elections will be only the second to encourage open, multi-
party competition. President Houphouet-Boigny's passing
signaled the beginning of a new era for the nation, as well as
for the sub-region and the entire African continent. One
important indicator the change in Cote d'Ivoire is the ongoing
revision and verification of the electoral list, and the
related debate over the continued extension of the franchise
to non-Ivorians. ... After lengthy debate, it was decided that
for the first time in recent elections, non-Ivorians resident
in Cote d'Ivoire will not be allowed to vote in the national
elections.
... The team's primary concern with the process centered on
four areas:
*A lack of openness among the government officials controlling
the process.* Based on the findings of the IFES team and on
the information provided by the government, the team concluded
that, if the government has nothing to hide, they must improve
the quality of the information that they disseminate to the
public. ...
*A lack of proactive participation in the revision process by
opposition political parties and non-partisan civic and human
rights groups.* ... Inaction favors the party in power and
the current administration, permitting them to be accountable
to no one.
*A seamless relationship between the government of the Cote
d'Ivoire and the leading political party, the Partie
Democratique de Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI-RDA).* ... The IFES team
feels that a major challenge facing the Ivorian election
administration is the successful balancing of the intentions
of the party in power and the equal participation of the other
political parties and candidates.
*A need for timely publishing of complete instructions for
each step of the registration and the electoral processes to
define the vague procedural and legal guidelines set out in
the electoral code.* ... The electoral code as it stands can
be said to create more questions than it resolves.
IFES' experience in electoral reform and technical elections
assistance in many of Cote d'Ivoire's neighboring nations
underlined for the Foundation the importance of the 1995
elections, not only for Cote d'Ivoire, but for the entire sub-
region. The transformation to participatory multi-partyism in
many of the neighboring countries, including Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Nigeria, Guinea, the Gambia, and Senegal, will only
benefit from the conduct of open and transparent elections in
Cote d'Ivoire.
*******************************************************
This material is being reposted for wider distribution
by the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC's
primary objective is to widen the policy debate in the
United States around African issues and the U.S. role
in Africa, by concentrating on providing accessible
policy-relevant information and analysis usable by a
wide range of groups and individuals. APIC is
affiliated with the Washington Office on Africa (WOA),
a not-for-profit church, trade union and civil rights
group supported organization that works with Congress
on Africa-related legislation.
*******************************************************
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