Money row threatens I Coast poll
2009-01-09 08:06
Abidjan - Lack of funds is blocking the
identification of millions of voters in Ivory Coast, election
officials said on Thursday, threatening to delay further polls
aimed at ending years of crisis.
The government and electoral commission have publicly traded
accusations of blame for blockages which have resulted in
election officials in some areas striking over unpaid salaries.
An election deadline of November 30 last year - the latest in a
series since a peace process was launched to reunite a country
divided by a 2002-2003 war - passed with polls still a distant
prospect, and no new date has been set for the vote.
Just over three million of an estimated eight-nine million voters
have been registered so far, and election workers have not yet
penetrated more remote rural communities. Diplomats say payments
have been complicated by confusing processes.
"We are blocked on the ground. In some places people have
stopped work so it has been delayed," Yacouba Bamba, spokesperson for the Independent Election Commission, said on Thursday.
"Once we have the money, we will be able to say how long it
will take ... once we have the money, it will start up again."
Election workers have been on strike in regions such as
eastern Abengourou. Bamba said none of his staff had been paid
in Bouake, the main town controlled by former northern rebels,
since they began work on November 18.
Questions of identity and eligibility to vote have been
central to the crisis in Ivory Coast. Immigrants were encouraged
in boom times during the 1970s and 1980s but have been
scapegoated during political crises and commodity price slumps.
All sides have been accused of profiting from the status
quo, which allows the former rebels to collect illegal taxes and
the government to remain in power. Diplomats are increasingly
frustrated with the slow pace of progress.
"It is a case of everyone trying to pass the buck," one
Western diplomat said. "I think these are excuses to delay the
process. There is a lack of determination to get a move on."
Cash shortfall
A United Nations report on December 18 estimated the shortfall
for the elections at $23m. The polls are expected to cost
$75m, $32m of which the state has vowed to pay.
This does not include the identification process, which
allows all eligible voters to register and all Ivorians over the
age of 16 to be recorded. Donors have so far refused to foot the
$89m bill.
Having earlier this week rebuffed a January 4 electoral
commission statement calling for the release of funds, the
government said on Thursday it was seeking help from donors.
Blaise Compaore, president of neighbouring Burkina Faso, who
brokered the latest Ivorian deal in 2007, has been contacted to
try to find a way forward.
Bamba said the electoral commission needed four billion CFA
francs to get fully operational but only 400 million
CFA francs had been provided to them in recent weeks. "This
doesn't even pay our people on the ground," he said.
Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, was one of the
most stable and successful countries in West Africa before its
civil war. Elections are seen as a key step in restoring
investor confidence and encouraging companies to return.
- Reuters