Cote D'Ivoire Elections: Past, Present, and Future

This weekend I read an article titled “Thousands pack the streets as Ivory Coast's Ouattara returns home” by Joe Bavier. I found this article by searching for “Africa news” on Yahoo News; however, it was published on the Reuters on March 2, 2014. This article is about the celebratory greeting of Cote D’Ivoire’s 72 year old President, Alassane Ouattara, after his return from medical treatment of pain caused by sciatica (pain, numbness, weakness, etc. caused by pressure of the sciatic nerve in the leg) in France and what is expected of him for the 2015 elections.

There was much indecision and angst in Cote D’Ivoire when President Ouattara was elected in 2010. President Ouattara’s competition in the election, Laurent Gbagbo, claimed that there were mass amounts of fraud when he realized that preliminary elections were in favor of Ouattara. Many international observers disagreed and, despite this, Gbagbo supporters claimed that he had actually won the election. In the end, both presidents proceeded with their own individual inaugurations believing that they were the actual winners of the election and civil war broke out with obvious evidence of human rights violations by both parties. Ouattara began to regain control of the country and the U.N. and France (even though France denies their involvement) ended up arresting Gbagbo. The civil war ended in 2011 and Ouattara still maintains his office.

Cote D’Ivoire’s citizens are beating drums, holding up signs of welcome, and are shedding tears of joy at the return of their beloved president. Some tension exists between President Ouattara’s party (the Rally of Republicans Party) and the Ivory Coast Democratic Party because rallies marking the return of the Ivorian Popular Front Party (Gbagbo’s previous party in 2010) are taking place, the Ivory Coast Democratic Party has yet to show their support for a presidential candidate, and the Cote D'Ivoire election is coming up in 2015.

These elections have already proven to be dangerous. It frightens me that Cote D’Ivoire’s reconstruction depends on these elections. The idea that conflict could flare up because one party supports the wrong candidate or too many people vote carelessly could cause masses to suffer the effects. There is almost no way of avoiding chaos in this situation and it, not only makes me feel millions of times more grateful that I live in the United States, but it makes me worry for the poor people of Cote D’Ivoire that they have to endure that kind of suspense and stress.