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