IVORY COAST: Political parties in Ivory Coast start campaigning for the first elections since the overthrow of former President Laurent Gbagbo, as pro-Gbagbo groupings split over a proposed boycott of the poll

Record ID: 182151

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Political parties in Ivory Coast start campaigning for the first elections since the overthrow of former President Laurent Gbagbo, as pro-Gbagbo groupings split over a proposed boycott of the poll
  • Date: 8th December 2011
  • Summary: AGBAHOU, OUTSKIRTS OF ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (DECEMBER 7, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS OF PDCI, MAN WITH T-SHIRT READING TOGETHER IT'S POSSIBLE SUPPORTERS LISTENING TO PDCI CANDIDATE KOFI KONAN BERTIN, PORT-BOUET CANDIDATE BERTIN WALKING ALONGSIDE SUPPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (French) DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF IVORY COAST (PDCI) CANDIDATE, KOUADIO KONAN BERTIN, SAYING: "The PDCI said it before, and I repeat it, that it only has one aim in Ivory Coast, it was born to serve the brave people of Ivory Coast. The vocation of PDCI is to govern Ivory Coast." ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (DECEMBER 7, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE LEON KONAN KOFI, WALKING IN STREET, WITH POSTERS FOR HIS CANDIDACY ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) SYLVAIN MIAKA OURETTO, FPI INTERIM PARTY PRESIDENT, SAYING: "In any case we are not ready to go to elections. And it won't be our fault, it's the authorities' fault because they don't want to tell the truth, the authorities today want that the FPI disappears from the political scene." AGBAHOU, OUTSKIRTS OF ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (DECEMBER 7, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) GREGOIRE ANOMA, PDCI SUPPORTER, SAYING: "We can't sit on our hands waiting for FPI to accept that we go to elections. Our state is asking us to go to elections, so with or without FPI we should hold our elections." VARIOUS OF STREET SCENES WITH ELECTORAL POSTERS FOR VARIOUS CANDIDATES, PEOPLE WALKING, TRAFFIC VARIOUS OF WOMAN PREPARING BANANA CHIPS (SOUNDBITE) (French) KARIDJA DOUMBIA, STREET FOOD VENDOR, SAYING: "That these elections should go well, so that our children can find work. Because we have enough graduates with diplomas managing phone booths, even me, you see I'm frying these banana chips, it's not very good, if only the youth could find work." STREET SCENES, PEOPLE WALKING IN FRONT OF CANDIDATES' POSTERS ON WALL, STANDING LOOKING AT POSTERS ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (RECENT) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE) (French) SYLVAIN MIAKA OURETTO, FPI INTERIM PARTY PRESIDENT, SAYING: "We will continue to work as a credible opposition, we will continue to criticise the politics of this government until the next elections, and waiting for the conditions to be right so that we can take part in those elections." ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (DECEMBER 7, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF STREET SCENES (SOUNDBITE) (French) GREGOIRE ANOMA, PDCI SUPPORTER, SAYING: "It's not good they are not in with everyone else, they should take part so that we can have the reconcilliation we're talking about. In fact who's going to reconcile with whom? It's the FPI and the RHDP. And if FPI is not there, the reconcilliation can't happen." VARIOUS OF STREET SCENES
  • Embargoed: 23rd December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cote d'Ivoire
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEW1PT4KPBWGO9TMCYCO27ALAS
  • Story Text: Canvassing started in Ivory Coast on Wednesday (December 7), as the country is preparing to go to the first polls since a civil war triggered by a disputed November 2010 presidential election killed 3,000 people and displaced over a million.
    Legislative elections scheduled for Sunday (December 11) are a test for President Alassane Ouattara as he tries to solidify his mandate over a still-divided country after years of instability.
    As campaigning opens, candidates are trying to rally voters and encourage them to come out to vote, as many are still shaken by the brutal violence earlier this year sparked by the power struggle between Ouattara and Gbagbo.
    "The PDCI said it before, and I repeat it, that it only has one aim in Ivory Coast, it was born to serve the brave people of Ivory Coast. The vocation of PDCI is to govern Ivory Coast," said Kouadio Konan Bertin, the youth leader of the Democratic Party (PDCI) who's a candidate for a town on the outskirts of Abidjan.
    PDCI, a party lead by Henri Konan Bedie, who came third in the presidential elections earlier this year, is part of Ouattara's RDHP coalition and wants to reclaim as many parliament seats as possible this year.
    The head of the party once led by former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo hit out on Wednesday (December 7) at political allies who have broken a boycott of the parliamentary elections, marking a fracturing in what was once a unified pro-Gbagbo bloc.
    A former Gbagbo spokesman said three of the eight main pro-Gbagbo parties in Ivory Coast would participate in the polls following conciliatory gestures from the government, having earlier boycotted the vote over alleged unfair treatment.
    An official of Gbagbo's own former party, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), said ten of its members had been suspended from the party after putting forward their names as candidates for the 255-seat legislature.
    But Sylvain Miaka Ouretto, FPI interim party president said they weren't acting in the name of the party and reiterated his position.
    "In any case we are not ready to go to elections. And it won't be our fault, it's the authorities fault because they don't want to tell the truth, the authorities today want that the FPI disappears from the political scene," Ouretto said.
    The recent wrangling inside FPI only exacerbates the challenges the party is facing.
    "We can't sit on our hands waiting for FPI to accept that we go to elections. Our state is asking us to go to elections, so with or without FPI we should hold our elections," said Gregoire Anoma, a PDCI supporter, Ivory Coast is recovering from an armed power struggle that killed some 3,000 people and displaced more than a million after Gbagbo refused to accept defeat in the November 2010 presidential election against Ouattara.
    Many ordinary Ivorians are fed up with the difficulties they face makingmeet, as the country struggles to make up for years of unrest and the recent civil war.
    However, some are still full of hope.
    "That these elections should go well, so that our children can find work. Because we have enough graduates with diplomas managing phone booths, even me, you see I'm frying these banana chips, it's not very good, if only the youth could find work," said Karidja Doumbia, a woman who sells her food on the side of the road in Abidjan.
    Gbagbo is now facing charges in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for his role in the war after a force of mostly northern ex-rebels, backed by French forces, captured him in the main city, Abidjan, in April.
    He was flown to The Hague last week to face charges of crimes against humanity, the first former head of state expected to be tried by the ICC since its inception in 2002.
    Ouretto, who had lobbied for Gbagbo to be freed instead of being sent to the ICC, said the FPI will remain in opposition.
    "We will continue to work as a credible opposition, we will continue to criticise the politics of this government until the next elections, and waiting for the conditions to be right so that we can take part in those elections," he said.
    But many people in Abidjan, where the battle over power took place in April, would just like to move on and see the country progress towards peace.
    "It's not good they (FPI) are not in with everyone else, they should take part so that we can have the reconcilliation we're talking about. In fact who's going to reconcile with whom? It's the FPI and the RHDP. And if FPI is not there, the reconcilliation can't happen," Anoma said.
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