The alliance struck in 2005 between President Alassane Ouattara’s RDR and former president Henri Konan Bedie’s PDCI was meant to dominate for generations and help heal the political rifts that led to civil war three years earlier.
But the pact that propelled Ouattara to presidential election victories in 2010 and 2015 collapsed last month as the parties bickered over whose candidate should be in pole position next time round. Now, both the RDR (Rassemblement des Republicains) and PDCI (Parti Democratique de la Cote d’Ivoire) are casting today’s vote for hundreds of mayors and regional council seats as a test of strength heading into 2020.
“Two years from the presidential election, this will allow us... to see how each political camp measures up,” said Mamadou Toure, a government and RDR spokesman. The local election campaign has been mostly smooth.
Residents flocked to rallies on dusty soccer fields to see candidates tout their achievements and, sometimes, hand out envelopes stuffed with cash.
But some voters said the coalition split had heightened their concerns about a return to violence. And the recriminations are starting. Ouattara’s supporters have accused the PDCI of reverting to the tribal politics of Ivory Coast’s blood-soaked past.
The PDCI says Ouattara’s government is drifting toward authoritarianism. “The split doesn’t suit us,” Laminata Bane, a vendor outside an election rally in the economic capital Abidjan, said above the blare of pop music. “We don’t want violence. We don’t dare imagine that it’s even possible.”
At stake is the stability of francophone West Africa’s largest economy and the world’s biggest cocoa producer, which is still recovering from a short civil war that led to Ouattara’s victory in 2010 over incumbent Laurent Gbagbo being confirmed.
Under Ouattara, a 76-year-old former central banker and senior International Monetary Fund official, economic growth has averaged more than 8% since 2012, trendy shopping centres have proliferated across Abidjan and investment has poured into agriculture and infrastructure.
Analysts say foreign investors such as agri-business giant Cargill or French conglomerate Bollore are keeping close tabs on the political situation, but there is little evidence they are cutting back on investment.
In twin votes of confidence, the African Development Bank returned its headquarters to Abidjan in 2014 after moving to Tunisia when the first civil war broke out, and a UN peacekeeping mission withdrew last year.
Still, progress remains fragile.
New business registrations rose 18% in the first half of this year but they had slumped in 2017 amid a series of army mutinies that raised concerns about long-term stability.
The mutinies have stopped for now following multi-million dollar payments and buyouts that have cut the size of the army.
