One of the many issues that African NGOs are tackling is election violence — bringing different sides together to prevent it as well as analyzing what happens after the fact. Here are two reports, one from a new group that is trying to prevent electoral violence in Ivory Coast by creating open debate among political candidates, and another that we have just received from the Nairobi Peace Initiative (Download Citizens in Action CCP) about a citizen’s group that emerged in response to the 2007-2008 electoral violence in Kenya. We look forward to your comments!
“Empowering Citizens through Debates”
by Jean Gondo Tompihé
Observing my country (Côte d’Ivoire or Ivory Coast) at a crossroad, I was preoccupied this past summer by not knowing which story will be told to later generations. Will history record Côte d’Ivoire as the place known as Africa’s melting pot of unity, but then failed to meet some internal challenges and hastily declined into division? Or will it be remembered as the place that faced and overcame these challenges by finding the political audacity to reinvigorate its nation in unity? I reached the conclusion that the answer resides within the quality of the leaders, whether they are up to the task or not.
Since the introduction of the multiparty system in Africa, the era of democratic transition turned out to be violently divisive rather than uniting in many countries. Democratization has divided many African countries along lines of identity. Many states broke down into rival and sometimes warring groups, triggering violent ethnic protests and killing in the name of blood and belonging. Rivalries that did not exist or that had been previously muffled within the single-party political machine between various groups have become more visible. Communal ties are increasingly being seen as trustworthy means for political mobilization in many places. It is worth cautioning here that democracy per se has never been the underlying cause of the ongoing politicized ethnicity. For every democracy-related ethnic conflict, many competitive elections on the continent have transcended cultural fault lines and exemplified peaceful transfer of power.
Côte d’Ivoire is among many African countries where democracy failed to exhibit a peaceful transfer of political power. Long known for peaceful cohabitation among groups, the country experienced ethnic clashes during the 2000 presidential election. Before the multiparty system, Côte d’Ivoire achieved national unity in managing ethnic differences under the founding father, Houphouët. After Houphouët’s death, a conflict over the succession process took place within the ruling circle between the president of the National Assembly, Henri Konan Bédié, and the prime minister, Alassane Ouattara. In the attempt to prevent Ouattara from running for the presidency, Bédié’s regime sharpened the scale of division from group identity to national identity by engineering a constitutional ideology termed “Ivoirité” or “Ivorian-ness” a concept of pure Ivorian parentage that divides the country into “pure Ivorians” (the so-called original natives) and “circumstantial Ivorians” (immigrants and their descendents), the latter composing a large part of Ouattara’s Northern and Muslim support groups.
In an effort to end the growing ethno-religious divisions, a military coup led by General Guéi abruptly put an end to Bédié’s regime on December 24, 1999. Elected in 2000, President Gbagbo fell also into the divide-and-rule ethnic game and embraced the idea of Ivoirité not less enthusiastically than Bédié. From then on, national issues lost their relevance leading members to perceive and express group preferences based on identity. Specifically, the Muslims and Northerners forged a sense of shared fate among the organizationally distinct Northerners in a process of enforced ethnicity after having been the victims of violent governmental repressions. The threat of conflict helped sharpen a feeling of self-differentiation between Northern and Southern communities, and politicized them, turning what were previously benign ethnic categories into genuine integrated identities and destinies. A civil war erupted out of a failed coup attempt in 2002. It divided the country; the South under government control and the North under the rebels who voiced discontent about the exclusion of Ouattara from recent elections to symbolize the longue durée marginalization of Northerners and Muslims from Côte d’Ivoire’s administrative centers of power. Today, Côte d’Ivoire’s peace process is completely stalled with a greater probability of a renewed civil war.
In light of the upcoming elections, I have founded the Ivorian Presidential Debate Commission (IPDC, www.lesdebats.org) to inform voters and foster the confrontation of ideas. As part of a broader humanitarian project, the IPDC’s immediate objective is to frame public policy issues in a way that connects to ordinary people’s lives and at the same time raise the quality of the leadership. Concretely, the IPDC is bringing the citizens’ voices into the very center of policymaking process. The IPDC has invited the political parties to debate national policy agenda and avoid ethno-regional demagoguery and gerrymandering for votes. The open expression of rival ideas is intended to improve the quality of government policy and ultimately create conditions for the resolution of conflict.
As a local group, I believe the IPDC is gaining the trust of the population. Prior to its operation, the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) attempted to organize a debate but failed. The opposition suspected that the NDI had close ties to the presidential camp. Being a local group and knowing all the political actors, the IPDC has opted for non partisanship. Since my television and radio interviews on Radio-Television Ivoirienne
http://www.lesdebats.org/activitesvideo.php
http://www.lesdebats.org/activitesradio.php
and Africa No1
https://mail.google.com/mail/ui=2&ik=e680beb335&view=audio&msgs=12414c93f7d57f3b&attid=0.1&zw,
many local groups from several African countries contacted the IPDC to learn the process of organizing a debate. I am interested in linking up with other grassroots movements in Africa that engage in similar issues. Exchanging with such organizations could be beneficial to the learning curve of the IPDC and other African local groups.
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Jean Gondo Tompihé is the founder of the Ivorian Presidential Debate Commission and worked as campaign strategist in Côte d’Ivoire. He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and can be reached at at tompihe@gmail.com.