Côte d'Ivoire is preparing uncertain legislative elections
Headquarters of the National Assembly in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
(Photo illustration) Wikimedia
Text by: François Mazet Follow
7 mins
The official campaign for the legislative elections on Saturday March 6 ends Thursday evening in Côte d'Ivoire.
This election comes four months after the presidential election which saw Alassane Ouattara obtain a controversial third term, in the absence of almost all of the opposition which had chosen to boycott, and in a tense atmosphere, since at least 85 people have lost his life in violence.
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Since October 31, the Ivorian political scene has greatly evolved, to such an extent that these legislative elections promise to be undecided, because this time the opponents have chosen to descend into the electoral arena, and even to participate massively.
Voters will have the choice between nearly 1,300 candidatures validated by the Electoral Commission, to conquer the 255 seats in the Assembly.
The PDCI, the former single party, is there, just like the FPI-legal, the COJEP, the UDPCI, and numerous independents ... and for the first time since the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011, those that we call the FPI-GOR, the “Gbagbo or nothing”, under the colors of the EDS platform.
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To read also:
Côte d'Ivoire is entering an electoral campaign for its legislative elections
The sociologist Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné, estimates that four months after having shunned the presidential election, the opponents have changed their strategy after having recorded their failure: “
The strategy of the empty chair has finally shown that there were many more consequences not to be participate in the elections, so it is very important for the opponents to continue to reposition themselves, at the risk of losing the reality on the ground and also of reducing their forces in the power play with the RHDP
”
The PDCI and EDS even form an alliance
for this election, against the RHDP of Alassane Ouattara.
In most of the constituencies where the vote is by uninominal ballot, that is to say for one person, an agreement to withdraw has been reached.
Each lets the other present their candidates in their fiefdoms.
To put it simply, the center for the PDCI, the west for the pro-Gbagbo.
But in ten of them, each one remained camped on his positions, as in Gagnoa sub-prefecture.
Report: in Gagnoa, the opposition at loggerheads
Pierre Pinto
In the thirty-six constituencies which elect several deputies, and where one thus votes for a list, one leaves under common colors.
For example in Yopougon, the most populous constituency of Abidjan: we find on the same list Michel Gbagbo, the son of the former president, and Augustin Dia Houphouët, grandson of the father of independence and member of the PDCI .
This list is led by Georges-Armand Ouegnin, the leader of EDS, who explained the strategy
last week on our antenna
: “
We are aiming for an absolute majority, we are going to elections to win Parliament.
There is no question for us of figuring out.
Those who govern us must know that we are there, that we exist, we are going to mark our presence on the political spectrum.
"
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To read also:
Ivory Coast: Yopougon, major issue of legislative
So can EDS and the PDCI force President Alassane Ouattara to cohabitate?
This one in any case does not intend to let it go.
About thirty ministers and executives of the regime are thus candidates.
The Head of State assigned them an ambitious goal: "
I hope that we can strengthen this majority that we already have
", he declared during the
launch of the
RHDP
campaign
, that is to say do better than the 167 seats currently occupied out of 255.
For the political scientist Sylvain N'Guessan, it will not be so simple: “
In view of the rate of participation of the presidential election, outside the localities of the north, it would surprise me that the RHDP could crush the opposition in the center, l east, west and south.
Nonetheless, with the north won over to its cause, the RHDP could come out largely victorious but could not crush the opposition in the southern part of Côte d'Ivoire.
"
And then there is another stone in the shoe of the PDCI-EDS alliance, which is that it has failed to unite the opposition.
Angry at their bulimia of applications, the other formations slammed the door and found their own agreement: the legal branch of the FPI led by Pascal Affi N'Guessan, the UDPCI of Albert Toikeusse Mabri, the URD of Danièle Boni Claverie or again the COJEP of Charles Blé Goudé, support a hundred common candidates, which accentuates the possibility of dispersion of votes, in a one-round ballot.
Without forgetting the independents, who locally will play the spoilsport.
There remains the uncertainty of participation.
Will the presence of all political families in this election bring voters back to the polls?
This is the challenge of the opposition but it remains to be proven, in a still tense context and while many Ivorians are impatient with a renewal of their political class.
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To read also:
Legislative in Côte d'Ivoire: overview of the forces involved
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