Ivory Coast: Unexpected Alternative

By African Bulletin on January 10, 2011

Following a meeting, the Convention of Ivorian civil society (CSCI) made a proposal to end the political crisis. According to the CSCI, the presidential election is not over. A new election must be held if the negotiations between Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara fail – what appears to be already the case since the latter said he would not discuss the election results.

Article 64 stipulates that in case of “serious irregularities such as to vitiate the fairness of elections and to affect the overall result, the Constitutional Council shall not declare the winner of the poll, as he did in enacting the victory of Laurent Gbagbo, but would pronounce the cancelling of the presidential election as a whole. Another election must be held within 45 days. Thus, the CSCI “advises the resumption of the presidential election in accordance with Article 64 of the Electoral Code, having met the conditions for greater security and complete transparency of elections. It also seeks a way to appease the social climate in post-election. In this perspective, it considers “inappropriate” the confiscation “of public media for propaganda in favour of one side”, recalling that the country is “not at war” and the government can not, therefore, appeal to “reason of state”. In the viewfinder of the CSCI, the Ivorian Radio Television (RTI), a major power issue as it affects 80% of the Ivorian citizens and is exclusively controlled by the camp of incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo. However, as evidence of its impartiality, the CSCI also request the closure of any media outside the control of the National Council of Audiovisual Communication (CNCA). A fairly clear reference to the television controlled by the former rebel New Forces (FN) and broadcasted in the north. Concerning the armed forces, the CSCI has put back to back the two opponent blocs, deploring “the attitudes and partisan hawkish of the Security and Defense Forces (SDF), loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, and those of the Armed Forces of “Forces Nouvelles” (FAFN), in favour of Alassane Ouattara. Finally, the CSCI denounces the recurring blockages of convoys of food and livestock in the zonescontrolled by the friendly forces to Alassane Ouattara.