Preventing Violence Around Local Elections in Cote d’Ivoire

With municipal and regional council elections approaching on September 2, 2023, tensions in a number of Ivoirian cities were escalating. The country had seen a recurrence of election-related violence, including following the 2020 elections in which President Alassane Ouattara stood for and won a controversial third term as president under the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix, RHDP) party banner. Violence before and after that election pitted members of political parties against each other, which usually meant violence between members of different ethnic groups as parties' bases of support are strongly divided along ethnic lines.

The area of Daoukro, home of the late leading opposition figure Henri Konan Bédié of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast - African Democratic Rally (Parti Démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire - Rassemblement Démocratique Africain, PDCI-RDA), saw some of the worst violence in 2020, and residents were fearful of repeat violence. On August 27, members of the local PDCI-RDA candidate's campaign staff accused the local RHDP candidate of buying votes and trying to use witchcraft to sway the elections, stoking tensions between the parties. Given the community's history of political violence, residents feared that violence would erupt once again. Since the 2010 political violence, communities across Cote d'Ivoire have remained divided across regional, ethnic and political lines, and friendships, collaboration, and interactions have reached a new low. Suspicion and mistrust have pushed groups further and further apart.

"The CIED's work led candidates and other party leaders to… respect their commitments to peaceful elections and ultimately accept the election results."

Residents of the town who worried about the rising tensions alerted the local branch of the Interparty Platform for Elections and Democracy (CIED), which includes representatives of both opposition and ruling parties. CIED members from all parties discussed the best response with the residents and amongst themselves across party lines.

The CIED is a national organization with 60 local branches that have been set up and supported over a series of USAID-funded programs since 2014. Its activities bring members of different political parties into close dialogue over issues that divide them in their communities, as well as help them collaborate on common goals like training for multiple political groups. For each election since the CIED's creation, including the latest elections, the CIED has sponsored an update to and signing ceremonies for a political party code of conduct, accompanied by widespread media on the code's provisions. The code, which all parties always sign during a joint ceremony at national and local levels, commits signatories to carry out their campaigns in a manner that is respectful of other candidates and the laws of the country, and notably includes provisions about refraining from spreading false rumors and ensuring information integrity.

Recognizing the potential for violence, members of the CIED who had recently been trained under the USAID-funded CORDIAL program on early warning and response, contacted the prefect who heads the department in the Iffou region, to discuss how parties and local authorities could motivate the various candidates stoking tensions to respect the code of conduct that they had signed before the opening of the campaign.

On August 29, the prefect and CIED convened the local candidates' representatives to remind them of the commitments they made by signing the code of conduct, as well as the heightened sensitivity and opportunity for violence in this election period. The campaign representatives apologized for the incident and committed collectively to avoiding such language going forward during the campaign, with all parties acknowledging the need to do better even if only one instance had been cited.

That same day, also in response to the incident, NDI and the CIED organized a large public session to better publicize the provisions of the code, reaching more than a thousand party members from Daoukro. The parties' various supporters saw their candidates' representatives sharing the same platform and conveying the same message of peace and social cohesion, which created a model for wider social acceptance across partisan lines.

After these efforts, the CIED did not observe any additional incidents of violence or incitement, marking a decidedly more peaceful atmosphere for elections than in the past.

In a similar incident in the central city of M'Bahiakro, a young member of the campaign team of an independent candidate for municipal council wrote on the candidate's Facebook page, "Don't sell your city to the foreigners." PDCI-RDA supporters, interpreting the comment as accusing their candidate of being foreign, immediately responded in the comments and elsewhere, and threats were exchanged.

PCDI-RDA supporters were particularly angry about these comments because M'Bahiakro has found itself grappling with anti-foreign sentiment that has undermined social cohesion in the city. Non-natives have been blamed for socioeconomic setbacks and accused of contributing to the social and political crises plaguing the area. Across the country, political actors have often exploited this kind of anti-foreign sentiment to win votes and support.

When NDI and the CIED learned of the situation, they met separately with the candidates and activists of each campaign team to remind them of the danger of hate speech and the importance of compliance with the code of conduct. In a subsequent joint meeting with representatives from each of the major parties and the two independent candidates, the campaign representatives agreed to champion violence-free elections.

On election day, the CIED of M'Bahiakro intervened again to prevent a possible escalation of violence. While on his way to vote, a CIED member from PDCI-RDA crossed paths with a young man from the ethnic group that often supports the RHDP who had been in a road accident and hit an older woman from an ethnic group that often supports PDCI-RDA. Fearful that the incident could turn into rumors about an attack on election day, the CIED member escorted the injured woman to the hospital and informed the RHDP headquarters about the incident; RHDP responded by paying the woman's hospital bill.

These actions preempted the potential negative effects of rumors, accusations, threats, and hate speech before they could result in widespread physical violence. Cross-party dialogues have helped political and ethnic groups better understand and appreciate each other's humanity and the impact and consequences of their campaign tactics and language on the community as a whole. The CIED's work led candidates and other party leaders to make public affirmations and issue reminders about the code of conduct and led their supporters to respect their commitments to peaceful elections. This ultimately motivated supporters to accept the election results in contexts where such speech had previously led to violence and rejection of results, allowing the communities to avoid repeat violence. Political party leaders and candidates who participate in CIED initiatives now serve as conduits for peace between political and ethnic groups in their communities and set an example for engaging in meaningful disagreement without veering into escalatory language and threats of violence.

Authors: Lindsay Robinson, Program Director for the Central and West Africa team and Killa Zadva, Project Assistant for the Central and West Africa team

NDI's engagement with this program is implemented with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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NDI is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization that works in partnership around the world to strengthen and safeguard democratic institutions, processes, norms and values to secure a better quality of life for all. NDI envisions a world where democracy and freedom prevail, with dignity for all.

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