THE  build-up to  the 2010 Ivorian Presidential election was as dramatic as the election itself. The election which produced two presidents, two prime ministers, two governments, two armies and two capitals will go down in Ivorian political history, paradoxically as one of the freest and fairest, ever held in the world’s greatest cocoa producing country.

Cote D’Ivoire has had its fair share of bloodshed, and coups even within the short period of a decade. In 1999, the ever restive Ivorian military struck and ended civilian rule. Henry Konan Bedie one of the present presidential candidates who lost out in the first round of the Oct. 31 2010 presidential election was then prime minister.

Again in 2002, the coupists struck but this time, President Laurent Gbagbo was lucky as the coup was suppressed in a bloody military operation that finally plunged the country into a civil war whose scars are still politically evident till date.

The Ivorian presidential election which was scheduled for 2005 after the civil war ended officially in 2004 has been rescheduled and postponed six times in the last five years. This is resultant from logistic reasons due to post civil war trauma, difficulties involved in the organisation and preparation for the election, formulation of ententes for the integration and rehabilitation of the New Forces (former armed), voters census and registration and most importantly funding for the election which was estimated at over 100 billion CFA francs.

Funding of the Ivorian election has been solely borne by the international community. On May 7, 2008, several other countries including France, Japan and the USA announced that they were providing CFA francs 115 billion in aid money and the process of resolving the trauma of the civil war.

On June 14, 2008, Bernard Koucher the French Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Cote D’Ivoire to meet with Gbagbo and Ouattara among others to help lobby African and International donors for the Ivorian election. He also told the bewildered audience that “France will not send any more of its own money”

Due to the massive polarization of the country as a result of the civil war, there was more work to be done besides voters’ census and registration.

The most prominent of these was the disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation and reintegration of the new forces or former rebels into the main stream of Ivorian life. Gen. Sonmaila Bakayoko of the New Forces revealed in September  2008 that about 43,000 former rebel soldiers would be rehabilitated out of whom 22000 would receive funding for micro-projects while the others would be absorbed into the Ivorian National Army or National Civil Service.

After a mutiny in Vavoua and Seguela on June 28, 2008 within the Rebel Command, President Laurent Gbagbo’s government announced on June 30th that it did not have enough funds to complete the disarmament and implementation of the peace agreement.

The United Nations Special Representative to Cote D; Ivoire, Choi Young-Jin therefore initiated a micro project’s programme for 1,000 members of the new forces who were not integrated into the Ivorian army on August 15, 2008.

According to him this will “create a stable security environment for free and transparent elections by re-introducing ex-fighters socially and economically back into their old communities”. The cost of this programme was estimated at 44.4billion CFA francs and financing for it was partially provided by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

So, after long delays, procrastinations and a veiled unwillingness, President Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent aspirant of the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FDI) finally accepted October 31, 2010 as election date. President Gbagbo who became president in a highly disputed and inconclusive election in 2000 weathered the storm until civil war broke out in 2002. President Gbagbo in a rare and uncanny feat of statesmanship held on to power through the civil war which officially ended in 2004 – till date without winning any election.

President Gbagbo’s two main rivals are Alassane Ouattara representing the Rally of the Republicans (RDR) and Bernard Konan Bedie.

Alassane Ouattara who was a former PM under President Houphoet Boigny from 1990-1993 has a solid block support from his native Northern Region. He also has the support of the New Forces.

The 3rd main candidate is Bernard Konan Bedie who was also Prime Minister from1993-1999 when his regime was terminated by a coup. He is the candidate for the Democratic  Party of Cote D; Ivoire African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA) Bedie and Ouattara though contested separately in the first round, however agreed to back each other if one of them advanced into the second round. And so it  happened.

Mr. Ben NANAGHAN, a public affairs commentator, writes from Lagos.