Ivory Coast Election Spurs Violence as President Ouattara is Re-Elected for a Third Term

Ivorians went to the polls in early November. What has followed has been a nightmarish near-repeat of 2010 post-election violence. Source.

Ivory Coast finds itself steeped in another contentious political climate after the 2020 presidential election. President Alassane Ouattara was reelected for a third term. The numbers show that Ouattara won 94% of the vote, but his opponents have openly rejected these results, claiming the election was unfair and illegal.

Ouattara was originally not planning on running for reelection, but in July, Ouattara’s successor, Ivorian Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly suddenly died of a heart attack after a cabinet meeting. After Coulibaly’s untimely death, Ouattara announced that he felt the country would be best led under his control, and opted to participate in the election.

Ouattara’s two election opponents, Pascal Affi N’Guessan and Henri Konan Bédié, have spoken out against Ouattara, reminding everyone that the Ivory Coast’s constitution says an eligible candidate can only hold the presidential office for two terms. In order to further discredit the vote, N’Guessan and Bédié encouraged their constituents to not vote in the poll on October 31. N’Guessan and Bédié have also promised to set up a transitional government after the skewed vote, to ensure fair and new elections in the future.

The day of the election witnessed many instances of malpractice. Around 23% of polling stations were not opened in the face of intimidation, and 5% of the polls that were open had reports of intimidation and threats. Outside of the polls, protests erupted in many different places, most notably in Abidjan where President Ouattara cast his own vote in the election. Protests have been going on since August, when President Ouattara announced his campaign. In that time, 40 individuals have lost their lives.

It has only been 10 years since the civil war sparked by election controversy erupted in the Ivory Coast. In that election, former president Koudou Laurent Gbagbo, in an attempt to keep his power violently lashed out against Ouattara after Ouattara won the contest. This spurred a civil war lasting months after the election. In this period of unrest, thousands of individuals were killed. In January of 2019, Gbagbo was tried by the International Criminal Court and found guilty of crimes against humanity after the election results in 2010. The prosecutors have appealed Gbagbo’s decision. Ouattara on the other hand seems to be following in Gbagbo’s footsteps as he tries to secure another term for himself despite the two-term limit in the Ivorian constitution.

The U.N. refugee agency has reported that over 3,200 individuals of the Ivory Coast have been fleeing to neighboring countries in the hopes of running from the violence. The European Union has expressed concerns for the political tensions in the Ivory Coast, with their foreign policy chief saying “incitements to hatred were continuing.” It was not long ago that the nation was swarmed with political unrest, and although this election has not reached the caliber of the last election, the tensions are still weighing heavily on the people as they flee their homes for safety.