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COTE D'IVOIRE: Identity Crisis

COTE D'IVOIRE: Identity Crisis The latest political deadlock could be over plans for a new electoral register. Africa Confidential reveals that a row between Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and President Laurent Gbagbo about identity cards and the electoral roll goes to the heart of the political crisis. Without a solution, there can be no elections and no serious hopes of peace between the armed camps. United Nations’ officials and Western diplomats will probably side with Banny. Gbagbo's Jeunes Patriotes will probably make trouble again. Identity cards have huge political resonance. Since 1993, when Henri Konan Bédié succeeded Félix Houphouet‐Boigny as President, Muslim northerners have struggled to get identity papers, officials have accused them of hiding their foreign origins and abuses linked to constant identity checks have mounted. North‐south tensions became personalised in the face‐off between Bédié, from the south‐west, and Houphouet's former Premier, Alassane Dramane Ouattara (“ADO”), who is both northern and Muslim, and a former International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director. Konan Bédié promoted the nationalist concept of Ivoirité and changed the constitution to allow only “100 per cent” Ivorians to stand for the presidency. He claimed that Ouattara's family came from Burkina Faso and that he had faked his http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series Wiley

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
0001-9844
eISSN
1467-825X
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-825X.2006.00384.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The latest political deadlock could be over plans for a new electoral register. Africa Confidential reveals that a row between Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and President Laurent Gbagbo about identity cards and the electoral roll goes to the heart of the political crisis. Without a solution, there can be no elections and no serious hopes of peace between the armed camps. United Nations’ officials and Western diplomats will probably side with Banny. Gbagbo's Jeunes Patriotes will probably make trouble again. Identity cards have huge political resonance. Since 1993, when Henri Konan Bédié succeeded Félix Houphouet‐Boigny as President, Muslim northerners have struggled to get identity papers, officials have accused them of hiding their foreign origins and abuses linked to constant identity checks have mounted. North‐south tensions became personalised in the face‐off between Bédié, from the south‐west, and Houphouet's former Premier, Alassane Dramane Ouattara (“ADO”), who is both northern and Muslim, and a former International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director. Konan Bédié promoted the nationalist concept of Ivoirité and changed the constitution to allow only “100 per cent” Ivorians to stand for the presidency. He claimed that Ouattara's family came from Burkina Faso and that he had faked his

Journal

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural SeriesWiley

Published: May 1, 2006

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