Ivory Coast in Post-Gbagbo Parliamentary Poll

Campaign for the Legislative elections has started in Ivory Coast to pass as the first election since the since the civil war and ouster of Laurent Gbagbo over the disputed Presidential election in late 2010.

The new President;Alassane Ouattara’s administration will be put to test as the elections which has been scheduled for the 11th of December for the unification of a divided Ivory Coast also to stabilise the country.

Another worry for the administration is that citizens are not keen to come out for the elections due to after-civil war shock which ended with the capture of Laurent Gbagbo.

Candidates campaigning laid emphasis on the reponse of Ivoriens pleading and assuring them a of a new Ivory Coast in view.

PDCI, a party lead by Henri Konan Bedie, who came third in the presidential elections earlier this year, is part of Ouattara’s RDHP coalition and wants to reclaim as many parliament seats as possible this year.

The head of the party once led by former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo hit out at political allies who have broken a boycott of the parliamentary elections.

A former Gbagbo spokesman said three of the eight main pro-Gbagbo parties in Ivory Coast would participate in the polls following conciliatory gestures from the government, having earlier boycotted the vote over alleged unfair treatment.

An official of Gbagbo’s own former party, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), said ten of its members had been suspended from the party after putting forward their names as candidates for the 255-seat legislature.

But Sylvain Miaka Ouretto, FPI interim party president said they weren’t acting in the name of the party and reiterated his position.

The recent wrangling inside FPI only exacerbates the challenges the party is facing.

Ivory Coast is recovering from an armed power struggle that killed some 3,000 people and displaced more than a million after Gbagbo refused to accept defeat in the November 2010 presidential election against Ouattara.

Many ordinary Ivorians are fed up with the difficulties they face making ends meet, as the country struggles to make up for years of unrest and the recent civil war.