Editorial For The People, Without the People.

Here is an editorial I wrote in 2016, my first time reporting and writing about an issue dear to my heart.

On October the 30^th, Ivorians had to vote to adopt a draft of the new constitution unveiled only 25 days earlier. This major proposal that would be marking the beginning of the Third Republic of Ivory Coast and profoundly impact the life of the citizens was unexpected. The opposition did not wait a minute to express their discontent and call for a boycott of the referendum. The party in power urged the populations especially their partisans to go blindfolded, vote yes. Tensions raised and the motives and transparency of the president became suspicious when reading thoroughly the proposal.  The government claims that this project benefits stability and reaffirm the rights of the citizens, on the contrary it is a threat to democracy and will create more tensions.

The president had mentioned a revision of the Constitution when he was elected last year, the goal was to evacuate the concept of “Ivoirité” or “Ivorianity” by changing the article 55 that states the condition of eligibility to be president. Now a presidential candidate must be “of Ivorian origin, born of a father or a mother of Ivorian origin” instead of both parents being Ivorian of origin. The actual president Alassane Ouattara whose parents are from the Burkina Faso, a neighboring country in the North, was denied the right to run back in 1994, and this resulted in a period of political unrest until 2011 when he got in power.

Being at the origin of the two previous civil wars and the instability of the country for the last twenty years it was not surprising that this article would be ratified as agreed upon back in the 2002 Lina-Marcoussis peace agreement. When this revision of the constitution turned into the redaction of a brand new constitution, the population caught off guard, expressed their concerns and the opposition protested in the streets. According to the government this was necessary to bring peace and stability to the nation and reinforce the rights and obligations of the citizens.

            To vote yes or no the population needed to be informed, to read, to study it and understand it. Time is a serious matter. Even partisan of the party in power have expressed a lack of preparedness for the campaign. By any standards the timetable was rushed and did not attest to profound deliberation, many officials even suggested that the constitutional referendum be delayed until early 2017, to allow time for greater popular participation. In their defense, the government insists that they made sure the population were well documented and understood perfectly the issues.

The president is accused of “treating constitutional reform as an elite project rather than an opportunity for dialogue and consensus”. The government claimed that the president has proposed the project to the National Assembly that include all the parties of the opposition. The opposition on their side says that they were never consulted or informed of what was in the constitution. What the president should have done, instead of having a committee of experts working in secret for a major project as this one, is gathering leaders of all parties including the opposition and members of the national assembly to create an assembly to elaborate this new constitution. This way the population also would have been better informed and able to follow step by step the evolution of the making of the constitution as well as the politicians.

Beyond the short notice, there are some major issues with the content. Let’s take a look at the critical points that appeared in the constitution that spark the rage of the non-Sayers.

Democracy cannot work when power is taken away from the people and placed between the hands of an elite group and congressmen who are all from a certain party. A post of vice president will be created and he will now be elected at the same time as the president during elections. However, Ouattara has already expressed a desire to stand down before 2020, and he plans to nominate his VP in the next few weeks instead of waiting for the end of his mandate for this principle to be applied. This decision led to suspicion that he was attempting to install a successor by the back door. The appointment of a vice-president would have a greater legitimacy if parliament were involved, for example, if he was chosen by vote in this specific circumstances. By his will to appoint a vice president, he is choosing the person that will be in power after him, he is imposing to the people their next ruler.

The other critical and highly controversial point no one is aware of or at least just a few people talk about, is the article 177. It replaced the previous article 188, that specifically states that any modification about the term limits, vacancy, conditions of elections of the president and the revision of the constitution had to be subject to a referendum. Now the new article gives the President power to change any requirement regarding the presidential status and the constitution how he wants, when he wants with the approval of two third of the senate without consulting the population. Knowing also that he nominates one third of the Senate. The first constitution guaranteed that every changes required the consultation of the people and them to be informed. A progress or more democratic decision would have been at least to assemble an electoral or create a conference with people to discuss any changes. Instead we are taking a step back, by concentrating the power in the hand of the congressmen.

 The people are deprived from the right to intervene, to be informed and participate in critical decisions concerning the political life of the country. But that is not all, the article also expresses that the head of state can only be judged for treason by the Court of Justice, not for crimes or felony which guarantee him immunity.

Is this really about creating a climate of stability and peace? The president used the lack of education of the population to take advantage of them. No one would take their time to read through the new constitution proposal of course except intellectuals, and educated people. Knowing that the rate of education is 51%, a large part of the population surely needs time and explanation to understand the outcomes of the results.

Unfortunately, the big mistake the opposition made was to speak too passionately and treating the president of thief and dictator without clearly explaining what was wrong in the proposal. People who genuinely want to know what is really happening by reading newspaper or watching the news only saw the opposition to the referendum as another occasion for the president enemies to come at him for no justified reason. The government played on that and accused the protesters of only rejecting the constitution because they to acknowledge the legitimacy of the present regime.

The protest and manifestation against the new constitution were forbidden and people including some important political party leader and figure were arrested. After weeks of tensions, the referendum was adopted. The voter turnout for the referendum was 42,2%, with 93.4 % of YES voters. Can we really conclude that the results reflect the will of the people? Democracy is characterized by the willingness of the elected leaders to be concerned and responsive to the will of the people. If it was really the case, the referendum would not be adopted and the president would have act differently. The truth is that profound changes will take place after the implementation of this new constitution. After twenty years of tensions and instability, the government should proceed more wisely and avoid taking measures that will revive tensions. The future generation should never experience what we did, and as a result an agreement should be found to revise this new proposal with all the political leaders and intellectuals and a new referendum must take place that will transpire the will of the people.

Citations:

“Côte d’Ivoire: ce qui changera si la nouvelle Constitution est adoptée le 30 octobre.” Jeune Afrique, [http://www.jeuneafrique.com/depeches/367776/politique/cote-divoire-5-principaux-points-projet-de-constitution/]

Côte d’Ivoire: la nouvelle Constitution promulguée par le président Ouattara [http://news.abidjan.net/h/603793.html]