Ivory Coast has scrapped its Independent Electoral Commission, known as the CEI, and has not yet said what will take its place.
Communications Minister Amadou Coulibaly announced the decision at a news conference after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “In view of the reservations expressed about this institution as well as the criticism it has faced, the Council of Ministers has decided to dissolve it,” he said.
He gave no detail on the successor. “I cannot tell you at this stage what this new mechanism will be, which will certainly be discussed and put in place at the government level,” Coulibaly said. The goal, in his words, is “to ensure in a lasting way the organisation of peaceful elections by creating greater trust and reassuring all Ivorians and the political class”.
A body under fire for years
Opposition parties have long said the commission was not independent. Their complaint was that its members lined up with the ruling coalition.
The CEI dates to 2001. Since military rule ended in 2000 it has run every election in the country, and its core job was enforcing the electoral code. It also sat in the middle of nearly every major dispute over a vote. The worst was the 2010 presidential election, where the contested result set off months of deadly violence.
The October vote
The most recent presidential race took place in October. President Alassane Ouattara won a fourth term with nearly 90 percent of the vote. Several prominent opposition figures had been barred from running, and opposition and civil society groups criticised the process as not inclusive enough.
No timetable for the replacement body was given at the briefing.
Sources
- Ivory Coast dissolves electoral body amid criticism
- Ivory Coast dissolves electoral body amid criticism
