Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
on 11 December 2011, after the
presidential elections
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pr ...
in late 2010. They followed a peace agreement between the government and the New Forces (former rebels) that was signed in March 2007."Ivorian president vows to hold elections as scheduled" Xinhua (''People's Daily Online''), July 10, 2007. The
Rally of the Republicans
The Rally of the Republicans (french: Rassemblement des Républicains; abbreviated RDR) is a liberal party in Ivory Coast (). The party is the country's governing party; the party's leader, Alassane Ouattara, is the current President of Ivory C ...
, the party of President
Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Dramane Ouattara (; ; born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) since 2010. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
.
Background
Following the agreement, the election was planned to be held in the first quarter of 2008. On 6 August 2007, then-president
Laurent Gbagbo
Koudou Laurent Gbagbo , FPI website . ( "COTE D'IVOIRE: Observers, opposition wary of Gbagbo’s rush to elections" IRIN, August 7, 2007. This was greeted with widespread skepticism by observers and the opposition, who said that the preparations for elections would be incomplete at such an early stage. It was announced on 12 September that the process of voter identification and registration would begin on 25 September,"Abidjan polls likely in 2008 - electoral body" AFP (''IOL''), September 14, 2007. and if it went well it was expected to be completed by the end of 2007. Xinhua (''People's Daily Online''), September 14, 2007. On 13 September the President of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), Robert Mambe, said that the presidential election should be held, "at the latest", ten months after the end of the identification process, around October 2008, and that the parliamentary election should be held 45 days after the presidential election. On 18 September Gbagbo again expressed his desire to see the elections held quickly and said that he was opposed to the "remote dates" being suggested.
The public hearings of the identification process were intended for about three million people born in Ivory Coast who did not yet have identification papers. The hearings were launched on 25 September and were to be held first in
Ouragahio
Ouragahio is a town in south-central Ivory Coast. It is a sub-prefecture and commune of Gagnoa Department in Gôh Region, Gôh-Djiboua District
Gôh-Djiboua District (french: District du Gôh-Djiboua) is one of fourteen administrative distric ...
and
Ferkessédougou
Ferkessédougou (often shortened to Ferké) is a city in northern Ivory Coast. It is a sub-prefecture of and the seat of Ferkessédougou Department. It is also the seat of Tchologo Region in Savanes District and a commune. Ferkessédougou is the ...
, respectively the home regions of Gbagbo and Prime Minister
Guillaume Soro
Guillaume Kigbafori Soro (born 8 May 1972) is an Ivorian politician who was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from April 2007 to March 2012. Prior to his service as Prime Minister, Soro led the Patriotic Movement of Côte d'Ivoire, and later ...
Ouagadougou
Ouagadougou ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural, and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's n ...
,
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...
, that the election would be held by the end of June 2008; the electoral commission was to propose the specific date of the election."Ivorian leaders pledge polls in 2008" AFP (''IOL''), November 27, 2007. Gbagbo reiterated on December 19 that the election would be held no later than the end of June 2008, and he said that he would visit all the regions held by the New Forces by March 2008 and would then make a report to the
Constitutional Council Constitutional Council might refer to:
* Constitutional Council (Chad)
* Constitutional Council (France)
* Constitutional Council (Ivory Coast)
* Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka)
* Constitutional Council (Cambodia)
* Constitutional Council (Kaz ...
Bernard Kouchner
Bernard Kouchner KBE (born 1 November 1939) is a French politician and doctor. He is the co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Médecins du Monde. From 2007 until 2010, he was the French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs ...
said on 27 January 2008 that the election might be delayed slightly past the end of June deadline due to technical requirements, particularly the need to update voter lists.
While Ouattara and Bédié said that full implementation of the peace agreement, including total disarmament of the New Forces, was not necessary prior to the holding of the election,
Pascal Affi N'Guessan
Pascal Affi N'Guessan (born 1 January 1953) is an Ivorian politician who is the President of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).Ivorian Popular Front
The Ivorian Popular Front (french: Front populaire ivoirien; abbr. FPI) is a centre-left, democratic socialist and social democratic political party in Ivory Coast.
FPI was founded in exile in 1982 by history professor Laurent Gbagbo, Aboudrama ...
(FPI), Gbagbo's party, said that disarmament must be completed before the election.
By March 2008, the common view among observers was that it would be impossible to hold the election as early as June. Although no leading political figures had yet expressed that view, in March Gbagbo referred to the importance of considering actual conditions and said that it would not mean "death" if the election was not held in June.
On 14 April Government Spokesman
Amadou Koné
Amadou Koné is a writer from Cote d'Ivoire.
Childhood
He is the son of Soma Denbie (said Mamadou Koné) and Kahou Sirima (known Karidia Koulibali).
Amadou Koné was born in May 1953 in the small village of Tangora in the circle of Banfora, tod ...
announced that the presidential election would be held on 30 November, thus delaying it by five months. According to Koné, the date was chosen by the CEI, which had presented a report to the government. Koné said that the parliamentary election would be held on a different date. Gbagbo expressed enthusiasm on the occasion, describing it as "a great day for Côte d'Ivoire". According to Soro's spokesman Sindou Méité, a "broad consensus" had been reached by Soro and other leading political figures regarding the date. The PDCI and RDR welcomed the announcement of a date, although they remained cautious; the United Nations Operation in Ivory Coast also welcomed it. On the same day, Gbagbo signed a decree outlining the terms of cooperation between the National Institute of Statistics and the French company Sagem, the latter of which is tasked with surveying the population so that voter lists can be updated and new voter cards can be created.
Campaign
The Ivorian Popular Front
boycotted
A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...
the election, accusing the electoral commission of bias in favour of
Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Dramane Ouattara (; ; born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) since 2010. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)National Congress for the Resistance of Democracy
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
. Ouattara's supporters formed the coalition
Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace
The Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (french: Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix, RHDP) is a political party in Ivory Coast.
History
The RHDP was established as a political alliance on 18 May 2005, se ...
.
Results
Following court challenges to the election of 66 of the MPs, 11 results were declared invalid (five of those were won by the RDR, four by independents, one by the UDPCI).I Coast court annuls 11 election results News 24, 1 February 2012
References
{{Ivorian elections
Ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
Parliamentary election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...