Divisive Politics in Cote D'Ivoire

Over 250 people died in the violence following the presidential elections in Cote d'Ivoire on October 22. The unrest began when Gen. Robert Guei, leader of a coup that overthrew the government on Christmas Eve in 1999, declared himself the winner and dissolved the election commission just as exit polls indicated that Laurent Gbagbo of the Popular Front opposition party was leading. Hundreds of Ivorians took to the streets in a mass uprising that rivaled that of the Yugoslavs against Slobodan Milosevic. Military support for Guei was weak and eventually he fled the country, leaving Gbagbo to declare victory. While this may seem like a success story, it does not end here. The real story is that of a country on the brink of ethnic warfare, severely divided by leaders who seek power at any cost.

Until recently, Cote d'Ivoire had been considered the haven of political stability amidst the turbulence that has surged in neighboring countries. Located on the southern edge of West Africa, it gained independence from the French under the leadership of Felix Houphouet-Boigny in 1960. He oversaw an economic boom but suppressed opposition and imposed a one-party system controlled by the Democratic Party for 33 years.

Since the death of Houphouet in 1993, however, Cote d'Ivoire has undergone accelerating political and economic instability. Henri Konan Bedie, then president of the National Assembly, succeeded Houphouet and continued his predecessor's autocratic ruling style; winning election in 1995 following an opposition party boycott and a period of intense violence and unrest. Turmoil rose within the army due to unpaid salaries and poor living conditions, and student riots were brutally crushed by the Bedie regime.

To maintain power, Bedie manipulated xenophobic tendencies unleashed by political competition and championed a notion of "Ivoirite," which distinguished "real" Ivorians from latecomers to this prosperous nation. Immigrants from neighboring countries constitute nearly a quarter of the Ivoirian population and were vital in forging the country's economic success. Yet to Bedie, to be a "true" Ivorian, one's parents and grandparents must have been born in the country. By championing Ivoirite, Bedie sought to isolate the large immigrant population and the mainly Muslim northern part of the country that supported Alassane Ouattara, leader of the Assembly of Republicans, the largest opposition party. The notion of Ivoirite was inserted into the electoral code to preclude Ouattara, Bedie's most popular rival, from running. The government also forged papers saying he was a foreigner.

After Guei came to power in a coup last winter, he established a transition government that included rival parties and promised a quick return to democracy. After a constitutional referendum that the nation, including opposition parties, widely supported earlier this year, Guei followed insidiously in the steps of Bedie by seeking to eliminate Ouattara and several other opposition candidates from the presidential elections.

Three weeks before the recent elections, the Supreme Court, headed by Guei's former personal lawyer, disqualified 14 of the 19 candidates for election, leaving only Gbagbo, Guei and three minor candidates in the race. This action caused an outcry for free and fair elections from the international community that went unheeded. On October 22, the presidential elections took place boycotted by both major parties; an equivalent scenario in American politics would have been if Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore '69 had been prohibited from running and Ralph Nader had beaten Pat Buchanan in the popular vote.

In a macabre twist of fate, many of those killed in the insurgency following the election were supporters of excluded candidates calling for free and fair elections. Gbagbo's supporters, mainly from southern ethnic groups, turned on their Muslim and northern rivals in politically and ethnically motivated violence. While Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, the U.S. State Department and the Organization of African Unity called for new and free elections, the French hurriedly supported Gbagbo as president. This sealed Gbagbo's resolve to proclaim himself as president though he was far from having a national mandate.

Politics has ignited the ethnic tension that had been largely contained during the first 30 years of independence. Whether Cote d'Ivoire can heal from the emergence of ethnic clashes is questionable. The path to political power appears to pass through a forest of ethnic rivalry rather than cohesion, and the political parties remain divided along ethnic lines. Houphouet's success in leading Cote d'Ivoire lay in his understanding of the ethnic diversity of the country. His successors have instead played up ethnic tensions in their bids to retain power, and the disenfranchisement of the vast majority of Ivorians in this electoral process has been ignored in favor of short-term political stability.

Legislative elections for Cote d'Ivoire will take place Dec. 10, in only nine days. The first test of the Gbagbo administration lies in its capacity to ensure the fairness of these elections; if it fails, Gbagbo has little hope of establishing national unity.

Macani Toungara '02, a Crimson editor, lives in Eliot House. She is secretary of the Harvard African Students Association and lived in Cote d'Ivoire for seven years.