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After a three-day wait, the result of the legislative election fell on March 6 on Tuesday. The Electoral Commission therefore announced the victory of the ruling party, the RHDP (Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la democratie et la paix), which therefore retains its majority. The opposition now represents 36% of the seats, while those close to Laurent Gbagbo returned after 10 years of absence. What lessons can be learned from this election? Elements with Sylvain N’Guessan, Ivorian political analyst.
RFI: What conclusions do you draw from this choice?
Sylvain N’Guessan: These elections went very well. This is one of the few times since 1995 that there has been no violence as such. So this is something to be greeted first.
President Ouattara had given his teams as leader to have as many elected officials as in the outgoing Assembly. Finally, the RHDP has 137 seats compared to 146 previously. He lost some ground?
RHDP loses ground. There is still EDS [Ensemble pour la démocratie et la souveraineté], that is, the trendy FPI Laurent Gbagbo, who is back in the game. There is also the PDCI that left the alliance with the RHDP. So all this means that the RHDP lost some votes. But still with 137 seats in an election with more than half, it is a great victory for RHDP.
An expected victory?
Yes, she was expected. RHDP was better structured, was more in touch with the people, has more resources unlike FPI [Front populaire ivoirien]who had been missing from the scene for 10 years and who were no longer in contact with the electorate. RHDP was the favorite.
Does the opposition stop??
The opposition continues, but the result is not famous. The FPI gets away with two deputies after leading the executive for 10 years, the PDCI [Parti démocratique de Côte d’Ivoire]is in sharp decline, although it still resists. The opposition gets away with a result that, in my opinion, is not in line with its expectations. His expectations were at least half of the voters, unfortunately the strategy did not follow with the division. All this did not work in favor of the opposition.
The PDCI remains the first opposition force?
The PDCI nonetheless resisted despite the loss of some leaders in 2018 who joined the RHDP. The result is good for this party, which has known so many crises in recent years. They have ruled this country for almost 40 years, so they have had time to have more leaders in different localities. As soon as one of them leaves the party, another head rises. Then they have a little more resources, they remained in coalition with RHDP until 2018. For example, they acquired more resources than EDS.
The participation rate is 37.88%. This is four points more than in 2016. This participation rate is a surprise?
This is more than expected. In the sub-area, it is generally around 33.5% for legislative elections. I think it is the highest turnout in an election in recent years in Côte d’Ivoire. It is almost astonishing because on the day of the vote for the communities I have crossed, it did not predict such a large number. But hey, the northern part of the country has voted, there are cities that have done 100%. When you add it to the arithmetic, it’s almost 38%.
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