New Hope for the Ivory Coast

In a hopeful turn for the Ivory Coast, citizens were allowed a democratic vote yesterday for the first time in ten years. Hoping that these elections would help to recreate the once prosperous economy the nation enjoyed, thousands of voters waited outside in the hot sun for hours. A rebellion in the north and disputes among the political elite is what cause Laurent Gbago to cling to power for five years after his term was due to end. The most recent dispute? The inability to agree on a voter list. Gbagbo was once a university professor, before he turned into what Adam Nossiter for the New York Times called a populist strongman. Gbagbo has focused most of his attention on the south, where his reserve of support is located, supplying his war chest from money from the country's cacao and and oil trade. The Muslim north is controlled by guerilla fighters while the west is a no man's land of lawlessness and rape. The dispute over the voter list brings into stark relief the Ivory Coast's long standing tradition of xenophobic tendencies against foreign immigrants. One of Gbagbo's primary opponents was prevented from running in 2000 because his parents were from Burkina Faso. Accepting a voter list is a sign that the government still has control over who gets to vote, and how they're going to vote.

By Margaret Nunne