Ivory Coast’s ruling party crushes opposition in parliamentary elections

Ivory Coast’s ruling party has further solidified its power after securing another resounding victory in parliamentary elections over the weekend, just two months after President Alassane Ouattara won re-election for a fourth term. With the opposition all but out of the picture, Ouattara’s party now holds nearly 80 per cent of the seats in parliament, […]

Ivory Coast’s ruling party has further solidified its power after securing another resounding victory in parliamentary elections over the weekend, just two months after President Alassane Ouattara won re-election for a fourth term.

With the opposition all but out of the picture, Ouattara’s party now holds nearly 80 per cent of the seats in parliament, largely controls the Senate, and dominates municipal and regional councils, in one of West Africa’s fastest-growing economies and the world’s top cocoa producer.

Supporters of the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) put its success down to a dynamic economy and stability in a troubled region under Ouattara’s watch since coming to power in 2011.

William Assanvo, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said the party’s dominance was the “result of discipline, organisation and the substantial resources made available to the candidates”.

Critics point, however, to low turnout rates – 35 per cent in Saturday’s parliamentary election and 50 per cent for the presidential poll – as well as opposition leaders being excluded from the race for president.

Since the 1990s, the Ivory Coast has been split between pro-Ouattara support in the north, supporters of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo in the south and west and the leading opposition force, the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) in the centre.

But the RHDP has extended its power in recent elections beyond its traditional stronghold.

Support for the PDCI, the country’s oldest party, slumped in the legislative elections, while it did not put up a presidential candidate in October after its leader, Tidjane Thiam, was barred from standing.

Thiam, an ex-Credit Suisse banker, has been outside of Ivory Coast since March, saying he fears arrest if he returned.

Gbagbo’s party has not fared much better. It has no deputies in parliament after it boycotted the ballot.