Democracy in Africa Threatened By Election Stand-off in Ivory Coast

African leaders, the United Nations and President Barack Obama have tried to convince incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo to accept the election results of 37 days ago, but he refuses to concede defeat. 

President Obama has personally called Gbagbo twice, but to no avail. As a compromise, the Obama administration has offered Gbagbo an “international role” if he concedes to the opposition leader.

Meanwhile, the winner of the elections, opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, is holed up in a hotel guarded by U.N. troops, and U.N officials warn of civil war and genocide if the stand-off continues.

Once one of Western Africa’s most profitable nations

	Ivory Coast, or Cote d'Ivoire in French, was under French control until 1960.

Ivory Coast, also known as Cote d’Ivoire, is situated on Africa’s western coast on the Gulf of Guinea off the Atlantic Ocean. French explorers and missionaries colonized the area in the 1600s.

Ivory Coast remained under French control until 1960 when the country’s natives established independence. At the time it was one of West Africa’s most profitable countries with flourishing cocoa bean and palm oil industries.

Until the 2000s Ivory Coast was a relatively peaceful and prosperous nation. The country's troubles were minimal compared to other African countries ravaged by civil wars.

A nation lost in a decade of violence

	Rebels seized the Ivory Coast cities of Abidjan, Bouake and Korhogo in a 2002 civil war that caused thousands of deaths.

In September 2002, rebellious soldiers attempted a coup against Gbagbo's government and attempted to seize the Ivory Coast cities of Abidjan, Bouaké and Korhogo. The rebels were unable to overtake Abijdan, but were successful in overtaking the other two—both located in the northern portions of the country.

The situation quickly deteriorated into a civil war between the government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.

After several months of fighting and thousands of deaths, the two sides reached a peace agreement and created a cease-fire line. In March 2007, the sides signed a peace agreement to end the conflict. 

An election postponed five years

	Incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo has refused to step down from his post after he lost a recent election.

When Ivorians went to the polls in 2010, many believed that it was the beginning of the end for Gbagbo’s government, which has been in power since 2000 and had extremely low approval ratings.

Gbagbo’s term was to expire in 2005; however, he claimed the country was too unstable to organize an election.

After the November 2010 elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) named Ouattara the outright winner by a nine-point margin.

Gbagbo disagrees, and has thrown out vote tallies from opposition strongholds.

“The international community and the others are doing it not because the Ivorians want it, but because they want to install a person they want as president,” said Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s defiance could lead to civil war

	About 200 people have died in Ivory Coast as a result of protests against incumbent president Gbagbo.

The political stalemate has left roughly 200 people dead throughout the country as a result of protests. Thousands have fled to neighboring countries such as Liberia to seek refugee from the rising tensions.

“The country is very fragile. The last ten years have seen the country polarized deeply, resentment growing over Gbagbo's continuing postponement of the elections,” says Jennifer Cooke, a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “So, people are very tense.”

Leaders from Kenya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia have all called for a peaceful resolution.

"A lot of Africans are looking at this to get a sense of whether elections really matter, or whether it's going to become increasingly difficult to have elections that everyone can agree with," says Christopher Fomunyoh, senior associate for Central and West Africa at the National Democratic Institute.

Experts warn that an unsuccessful election in Ivory Coast could affect upcoming elections in Sudan, Nigeria, Congo, Zimbabwe and Liberia.