Côte d’Ivoire is part of a region with a vibrant history defined by the movement of goods, peoples and religious evolution. The country is located on the southern edge of the most prominent and wealthy West African empires. Following early Neolithic findings, subsequent populations in the area have left few archaeological traces and evolved on the periphery of the Sudanic empires of Western Sahara. These included the empire of Ghana, with a heartland in western Mali and eastern Mauritania, and the empires of Mali and Songhai.
Even though the rainforests in the south of current-day Côte d’Ivoire made settlement difficult, the country was well integrated into the complex trading networks that linked the region to the Sudanic empires and beyond the Sahara. Those trade routes served as a conduit of religious learning, with Islam spreading south from the Sudanic empires around the 12th century. Trade also accompanied pathways of migration.
Eventually, important states also arose in northern Côte d’Ivoire, such as the Muslim Kong Empire founded by Dyula peoples who migrated south along the trading pathways and the Akan Gyaman kingdom. A powerful Akan state in the territory of modern Ghana, Asanti, provoked waves of further migration into the tropical forests of southern Côte d’Ivoire, and contributing to the founding of the kingdom of Baoulé in the centre of the country’s modern territory.
European Presence
The importance of the southern and coastal regions gradually increased with the arrival of European traders, the first of which were the Portuguese, who first sailed along the coast of Côte d’Ivoire in the 15th century. Unlike in neighbouring Ghana, they did not establish permanent trading posts due to a lack of sheltered bays. This delayed European exploration of the hinterlands and essentially saved the ancestors of Ivoirians from the transatlantic slave trade.
Côte d’Ivoire got its name from the flourishing ivory trade in the area between the 17th century until the near extinction of elephants in the 18th century. Although a few Christian missionaries had arrived in the 16th century, the religion did not begin spreading until the increase in French presence. Initially striking deals with local powers, French commercial and political interests soon attained a colonial character when France assumed control of its forts and trading posts in 1886. A military force marched in the following year, culminating in French protectorates and effective control over lands to the south of the Niger River.
The country officially became a French colony in 1893 as France sought to legalise its gains during the Scramble for Africa. Initially, the French had sought to include the Upper Volta and French Sudan into the colony to increase cocoa, palm oil and coffee exports. Further integration followed when, together with Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire was assigned to the Federation of French West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire left the federation in 1958 to achieve independence through peaceful means in 1960. Its present borders were defined in 1947.
Independence & Stability
In the aftermath of independence, Côte d’Ivoire emerged as a new state with disparate ethnicities and regions. In those years, Felix Houphouët-Boigny, president of the republic until his death in 1993, dominated Ivorian politics. Coming from a tribal chieftain’s family, he rose to prominence as a politician in French governments and the National Assembly. President Houphouët-Boigny’s long rule was characterised by cautious liberal free-market economics, especially in contrast with nearby Ghana.
Under his rule Côte d’Ivoire welcomed foreign investment and aligned itself with France and more broadly the Western bloc, carving out a niche for itself in cocoa, coffee, palm oil and tropical fruit exports. His rule was characterised as a time of economic prosperity and left a strong legacy, such as the shifting of the official capital to Yamoussoukro, the president’s birthplace.
While economically prosperous, the country had a few safety valves for evacuating popular discontent as opposition parties were banned. Two reported coup attempts were foiled. However, opposition candidates were allowed to compete in the 1990 election, which was won by the incumbent.
Power Vacuum
After President Houphouët-Boigny’s death, Henri Konan Bédié, former president of the National Assembly, won the 1995 election and restored stability, even as his government’s practices were denounced by the opposition as mired in corruption and repression. President Bédié’s government fell to a coup spearheaded by General Robert Gueï in 1999, who lost the following year’s presidential election to Laurent Gbagbo. However, he only conceded after mass demonstrations. During his short stint in power, General Gueï significantly destabilised Côte d’Ivoire’s multi-ethnic cohabitation by restricting voting to citizens with both parents born in the country, disenfranchising a significant portion of the population.
A revolt in the country’s north led to Gueï’s death in 2002 as the civil war expanded into a confrontation between the loyalist south and a separatist north. France, the UN and ECOWAS intervened to negotiate a series of ceasefires. Eventually, a power-sharing agreement was established. The incumbent president’s term was prolonged and Guillaume Soro from northern Côte d’Ivoire became the prime minister.
The 2010 election was mired in controversy as both President Gbagbo and his opponent Alassane Dramane Ouattara claimed victory, with the UN and ECOWAS lending weight to the latter’s claims and imposing sanctions on the Gbagbo administration. Ouattara eventually became president and subsequently won a landslide victory in the 2015 election. The winner softened ethnic tensions by issuing a new constitution and repealing the controversial parenthood rules.
New Constitution
Following President Ouattara’s rise to power, the economy started recovering and peacekeepers withdrew from the country in 2017. In the 2020 elections, Ouattara was reelected for a third term following the death of his party’s previous nominee, Amadou Gon Coulibaly. Ouattara won 95% of the vote in an election marked by an opposition boycott. An African Union observer report issued in 2020 characterised the election’s judicial framework as conforming to international standards.
A new constitution implemented in 2016 aimed to strengthen the legislative wing by adding an upper chamber and creating the post of vice-president for the executive branch, while retaining the presidential character of the republic. The president’s justification for the legality of his third term is grounded in this constitution, as the incumbent and his supporters claim that the 2016 constitution effectively reset presidential term limits. The constitution also established the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs to strengthen the representation of customary leaders and develop traditional dispute intermediation.
In the post-2016 political system, the president retained significant power and was given the authority to appoint a vice-president running mate who succeeds the president in case they are incapable of fulfilling their duties. The president also names the head of state and the Cabinet, currently composed of 32 ministers, reduced from 41 in April 2022. Presidential privileges include submitting bills to the legislature or a referendum; the appointment of military, civil service and diplomatic personnel; setting and implementing national policy; and the right to grant pardon. The president is the head of the armed forces and is empowered to declare a state of emergency in exceptional situations.
Legislative Branch
It consists of two chambers, the higher branch, the Senate, and the lower house, the National Assembly. 169 members of the assembly are elected for five-year terms in a first-past-the-post system in constituencies around the country. The remaining 86 are elected in the 36 multi-member constituencies through the plurality-at-large system.
The most recent election took place in 2021, with the incumbent president Ouattara’s Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (Rassemblement des Houphouëtists pour la Démocratie et la Paix, RHDP) winning a majority of 137 out of 255 seats despite losing 30 seats compared to the 2016 election. The ruling party started as a broad coalition and became a unitary party in 2018. Other prominent parties in the assembly include the centre-right Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire African Democratic Rally in coalition with Together for Democracy and Sovereignty party, which has 50 seats in the assembly; and the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, with 23 seats. The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party, founded by Gbagbo and currently headed by Pascal Affi N’Guessan, participated in the election in the Together to Build coalition with the Union for Democracy and Peace in Ivory Coast (Union pour la démocratie et la paix en Côte d’Ivoire; UDPCI) and other allied parties. Their combined result was eight seats.
Independents constitute the third-largest force in the assembly, with 26 seats. While the FPI claimed to seek electoral stability, the UDPCI accused the ruling party of holding fraudulent elections despite most international observers’ comments that the legislative election results were credible. Following the legislative election, the National Assembly chooses a president who oversees the debate and is empowered to propose legislation. Adama Bictogo, an executive of the ruling party, was elected president of the assembly after his predecessor Amadou Soumahoro’s death in May 2022.
The Senate, the upper house of Parliament, is a legacy of the 2016 constitution. According to the constitution, the 99 senators are to be elected by National Assembly members, councillors and district governments, with each region and autonomous district selecting two senators and the president appointing one. In the 2018 senatorial election, which was boycotted by the opposition, 33 senators were indirectly elected to the chamber, while the president appointed the other 33. RHDP holds 50 seats out of 66, with 33 seats vacant pending another election in 2023.
Judiciary
Côte d’Ivoire’s judiciary is influenced by both French civil law and customary law. The country’s judiciary is separated into an upper level composed of the Supreme Court; the High Court of Justice, empowered to put to trial members of government; and the State Security Court. The judiciary’s lower level is composed of justice of the peace courts, courts of appeals, nine courts of first instance with authority over minor criminal cases and civil law cases, and courts of assizes. The Constitutional Council is tasked with matters of constitutional law and regulating the functioning of public administration. Meanwhile, customary law retains some importance in rural areas and is promulgated on the national level by the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs.
Local Government
Côte d’Ivoire’s constitutional order concedes a relatively significant power to local governments, administered by the Ministry of Interiors’ General Directorate of Decentralisation and Local Development. The country is divided into 14 districts, two of which are cities. These are subdivided into 31 regions, which are split into 108 departments. The departments contain a total of 510 sub-prefectures composed of several village authorities. They are sometimes grouped into communes, of which Côte d’Ivoire boasts 197. The number of local authorities in the country has continued to grow ever since the first departments were created in 1961, reflecting the rapidly expanding population. The next municipal and regional elections are scheduled to take place in 2023. The ruling coalition won the 2018 election. The incumbent’s coalition won 46% of the vote in municipalities and 60% in the regions.
Outlook
Following a contested presidential election in 2020, the National Assembly elections of 2021 took place in relative calm, a pattern that will hopefully be repeated for the local elections of 2023 and the presidential election scheduled for 2025. With another presidential election coming up, the government has prioritised its ambitious reform agenda and worked to address the main roots of conflict in the country.
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