Ivory Coast : Postponement of Elections Due to June 2008 : Who is to Blame ?

Ivorians have come to the exhausting point for the holding of the long-postponed elections. Voices have arisen both from inside and outside the country not only to call for free and fair elections but also to search the various causes that hinder the holding of such elections. However, the question remains.

The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), the National Statistics Institute (INS), the French technical Operator SAGEM, the popular opposition parties, President Laurent Gbagbo and his Premier Soro Guillaume, are accusing each other of the postponement of the presidential election in Ivory Coast. Each of these entities is an important actor of the electoral process and bears the responsibility for the successful holding of 2008 general elections. The postponement of these elections is still fuelling debates in the country.

SAGEM, the French Operator, hired by the Ivorian government to identify voters by the use of biometric data claimed up to 100,000,000 US $ to keep up the work. The government disagreed with this financial bid and dismissed SAGEM. Till now, the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) is not through with the public hearings which are an important step towards the holding of the elections, mainly because of the strike of judges, attorneys and legal experts in charge of this operation, and because of the lack of financial means as reported by Beugre Mambe, the Head of the CEI. The Head of the National Statistics Institute (INS) asserts that its institute has faced many financial, logistic and administrative problems; among is the crafting of a reliable electoral listing. President Gbagbo and his Prime Minister Soro consider the leaders of the most popular opposition parties as responsible for the blockade that hinder the holding of free and fair elections in Ivory Coast. On addressing the populations of Beoumi, a town 30km far from Bouake, the hub of the former rebellion, Gbagbo warned the leaders of opposition against the Kenyan post-electoral violence syndrome: “Each candidate is claiming victory before the holding of the election [...] They are working to favor the birth of the kenyan post-electoral violence syndrome in this country. I keep these people responsible for what might occur after proclamation of poll results”. On the other side, the leaders of the opposition parties assert that Gbagbo will not willingly organize free and fair elections unless people coerce him to do so. Besides the leaders of opposition parties claim that President Gbagbo is using tricks to delay the date of the election in order to organize electoral fraud and stay in power for another term of office.

This gloomy political atmosphere seriously undermines the promising confidence that was born after the Ouagadougou Agreement and “the flame of peace” held in Bouake. Confidence is unfortunately giving place to mistrust. Meanwhile each political actor shifts the blame on the others.

Selay M.K.