POLITICS-COTE D’IVOIRE: Extended Political Transition Raises Temperatures

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Fulgence Zamblé

ABIDJAN, Oct 22 2006 (IPS) - An African Union (AU) recommendation to extend the political transition period in Côte d’Ivoire for a year will be put to the United Nations Security Council this week – even as various groups in the war torn nation oppose the plan.

In terms of the recommendation, which stemmed from proposals made by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Laurent Gbagbo will remain in office for an additional twelve months – while Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny will also stay on until October 2007, when elections are due.

Banny was appointed in December last year to oversee disarmament of rebels and government militias in the West African country, and organise polls scheduled to be held by the end of this month. However, reports indicate that only a fraction of the fighters have surrendered their weapons – while various leaders are accused of lacking the political will to return the country to normality.

Polls were initially set for October 2005 in Côte d’Ivoire, which has been divided into a rebel-held north and government-controlled south since a failed coup in 2002 by forces alleging discrimination against northerners. A buffer zone between the two regions is guarded by United Nations and French troops.

The AU recommendation, presented in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa last week, also gives Banny additional powers. These would allow the prime minister to introduce laws in a bid to increase the pace of transition – even though this is at odds with the constitution, which vests authority in the president.

“(The constitution) does not provide for transition in the country. It does not provide for a prime minister with strong powers,” said Charles Blé Blé, one of the drafters of the document.

Nonetheless, he endorses moves to strengthen Banny’s position. “This decision contributes to restoring peace. The international community should have thought of it sooner,” Blé Blé told IPS. “We are in a transitional situation and all means must be given to authorities of this transition to make it succeed.”

Supporters of Gbagbo oppose this view, with Séry Bailly – a member of the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (Front populaire ivoirien) – describing it as a coup conducted by stealth.

“While the constitution is in force, the president is in office – with his powers,” he told IPS. “Only the powers which are given by the constitution to the prime minister” are his.

Similar words came from Thierry Akaffou, a member of the Student and Scholar Federation of Côte d’Ivoire (Fédération estudiantine et scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire), which supports the president.

“Gbagbo was stripped of his powers. The (rebels) have obtained what they could not achieve with arms, without having made the least sacrifice,” he told IPS. “The taking up of arms has just been sanctioned. We will all try it.”

Marc-André Kouassi, a sociologist living in Abidjan, is also sceptical about the prospects for implementing the AU recommendation.

“I do not believe that the decisions of the AU are enforceable, especially since the constitution has not been suspended. Believe me, the blockages (to transition) will persist, as Laurent Gbagbo will not give up an iota of (his) powers,” he told IPS, adding that Banny could also find himself facing a coup by the military, which backed Gbagbo.

In addition, reports indicate that rebels in the north question the AU plan; they are quoted as saying it is unacceptable for Gbagbo to remain as head of state for an additional year, as this will undermine the transition.

For its part, civil society has issued a statement warning against intransigence on the part of political leaders and rising tensions, saying Côte d’Ivoire could find itself following in the footsteps Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Somalia “with their procession of ethnic massacres, famines, and poverty-stricken refugees.”

Observed Jean-Louis Billon, one of the civil society spokespeople, “We have only favoured the political approach until now, but the debate went round in circles.”

“There must now be a transition stemming from civil society,” he added, spearheaded by “technocrats and political, economic, religious and traditional personalities.”

At the AU meeting in Addis Ababa, South Africa’s president – Thabo Mbeki – stepped down as chief mediator in the Ivorian crisis.

He had previously been accused of bias by the opposition and rebels, as well as by ECOWAS – which held that he favoured Gbagbo. The current president of the AU, Congolese head of state Denis Sassou Nguesso, will replace Mbeki.

However, analysts acknowledge that the South African head of state succeeded in certain respects during his mediation – notably removing obstacles to having former prime minister and the leader of the Rally of the Republicans (Rassemblement des républicains), Alassane Dramane Ouattara, participate in presidential elections.

Ouattara, a leading opponent of Gbagbo, was prevented from contesting polls in 2000 because of queries about this nationality.

In the midst of the political bickering, many citizens of the world’s leading cocoa producer now find themselves in precarious circumstances.

A report by the Ivorian League of Human Rights, published last week in the economic centre of Abidjan, notes that some families now exist on only one meal a day.