IVORY COAST: Presidential candidates battle it out on campaign trail

Record ID: 182315

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Presidential candidates battle it out on campaign trail
  • Date: 16th October 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF FARMER LISTENING TO/APPLUADING OUATTARA SPEECH
  • Embargoed: 31st October 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA81ORM53P508HGIKD6B1CLW2T8
  • Story Text: Ivory Coast opposition leader and presidential hopeful Alassane Ouattara said on Wednesday (October 14) he plans to reverse the country's sliding cocoa output with a five-year 2.5 billion U.S. dollars revamp programme.
    Declining production in the world's No. 1 cocoa supplier has helped push world prices for the commodity near a 25-year high, with Ivorian farmers blaming high taxes and limited government support for their deteriorating plantations.
    The country, scarred by a 2002-03 civil war that split the nation in two, has scheduled long-delayed elections for later this year. Analysts say the poll could restore the West African nation's stability if successful.
    "It' s an industry that demands a lot of investments, and we have planned 2.5 billion dollars in our budget that will go towards agriculture," Ouatarra told a group of farmers in Abengourou, north of the main commercial city Abidjan.
    Ouattara said he believed farmers should get "at least half" the world market price for their output as a means of encouraging increased production.
    Ivory Coast's government -- under President Laurent Gbagbo who will also run in the upcoming poll, --has slashed taxes on cocoa exports for the 2009/10 season in the hopes of boosting output that slumped last season to its lowest in at least five years.
    Gbabgo also said that he would bring in new changes as he announced that he will be running for president today.
    "I am a presidential candidate in order to continue the fight that we have started. I am a presidential candidate in order to continue the fight that our parents started in the 40's, and that some have abandoned. I am a presidential candidate for Ivory Coast, the fight has began , let's move forward," he said.
    Gbagbo said he's ready to stir the country in a different direction.
    "There are men and women in Ivory Coast whose political affiliation depends on the ties they have abroad," said Gbagbo -- referring to Ivorians based abroad -- who have heavily criticises his government.
    On the other hand, Ouattara said he would launch a 1.1 trillion CFA franc program (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) aimed at streamlining the government's agricultural bureaucracy, improving farmer access to credit for plantation improvements, and modernising farming methods.
    "We are going to make agriculture a priority in our country. So I would like to say that November 29th is a very important moment for our country, we all have to vote, we all have to go to place our ballots, and we have to make sure that Ivory Coast elects a president in a democratic manner," he said.
    He added that he would seek to address perennial land disputes that have disrupted farming activity in the country in recent years.
    "I will change all the structures -- all the structures that so far don't really benefit the farmers, and I will put in place a new structures that will deal with the coffee and cocoa industry, in all transparency," Outtara said.
    Outtara hopes to ease farmer access to credit, solve land disputes.
    "We chose ADO because when he visited us on his numerous trips around the country, from July 20 to 25, and he told us two things. One: I have great ambition for my country. Two: I have solutions for my country. So, us farmers are part of the solution," said Boa Bonzou, a farmer who runs a 60-hectare cocoa plantation.
    Ivory Coast's presidential elections have been delayed for some four years in a tortuous post-civil war peace process.
    A senior U.N. official said this week that the election preparations appeared to be behind schedule, casting doubt on the government's ability to organise a poll this year.
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