Formation of new gov’t cools crisis in Ivory Coast but country is impatient for elections

Ivory Coast crisis cools _ for now

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — With the formation of a new government, Ivory Coast has defused a political crisis that triggered deadly riots — but has also allowed the embattled president to postpone long-promised elections by at least two months.

Three weeks ago, President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the government in a country that was once a model of political stability and an economic powerhouse. Violent opposition protests followed. At least five people died before the opposition agreed to join a new government.

But the composition of the new government, which was announced Thursday, is little different from the old one. It is composed of 16 ministers from the president’s camp, 13 of whom served in the last government. The opposition replaced all but three of its 11 ministers but still retains an opposition member as head of a nearly identical electoral commission.

“One wonders why he dissolved the government,” said Alassane Ouattara, who will be one of Gbagbo’s main opponents in a presidential election. “The framework of the government is 90 percent of what it was before.”

There is one notable difference: The presidential elections which were slated for the beginning of March now won’t be held before May, at the earliest.

Prime Minister Guillaume Soro pledged to hasten the organization of elections, which is stalled over the approval of a final voter roll. Gbagbo’s party claims thousands of illegitimate foreigners are on the lists and need to be removed. Opposition parties denounced it as a tactic to disqualify their supporters.

Elections have been postponed at least seven times since 2005, when Gbagbo’s first term expired. He asked for a one-year extension, arguing that rebels who had split the country in two following a brief 2002 civil war had not yet been disarmed. Every year since then, he has asked for a postponement, keeping the country on the brink of a political crisis which periodically spills over into violent street demonstrations.

In 2007, Gbagbo signed a peace deal with the rebels, creating a unity government and a roadmap for elections. The deal called for the creation of an electoral commission that would include appointees from all political sides and whose task was to prepare the voter roll.

The commission revised citizenship rules to include people with one Ivoirian parent, changing the electoral law which had earlier required both parents to be citizens. The new definition eliminates previous challenges to Ouattara’s candidacy. He was banned from running in both 1995 and 2000 on the argument that one of his parents is from Burkina Faso.

But in a country that has not had an election in 10 years, disagreements remain over citizenship and over how to reunify a nation torn between a rebel-controlled north and a government-controlled south.

Ouattara, for his part, expressed pessimism that the way is now being cleared for elections to be finally held under Gbagbo.

“So he got two months,” Ouattara said. “We’re just waiting for another trick so it will be delayed again.”