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Electoral/Political Party Reform – 2007

The Ouagadougou Political Agreement had various provisions related to elections and the electoral process. In the accord, parties agreed to launch an operation to issue a new identification document for the purpose of solidifying the electoral roll. The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) was responsible for conducting an electoral census and parties had agreed that all Ivorians of 18 years of age who held an Ivorian birth certificate or a substitute birth certificate were to be registered on the electoral roll. Those already in the electoral roll (in the electoral list established in 2000) were automatically added to the new list after presenting a birth certificate. After producing the electoral roll, CEI was responsible for publication. The peace accord also had a provision to publish the definitive electoral roll followed by the issuance of voter registration cards. The accord called for inter-agency cooperation between the National Institute of Statistics (INS) and the CEI. As such, the accord specifically provided for the electoral census, voter registration, and identification cards.

The process of implementing provisions related to electoral reform started in 2007. According to the United Nations Secretary General’s report to the Security Council, the CEI had completed central and regional structural set-up to support the task of carrying out the electoral census.¹ The mobile court, which was expected to be established for identification of the population, was not established in a timely manner. It was expected to start in April of 2007. On 5 June, magistrates were appointed for 45 jurisdictions to carry out the planned mobile court operations.² The mobile courts to identify the population began work starting 25 September. As of December, 55 technical teams (33 of which were operational) were deployed out of 111 planned mobile courts. It was reported that the court granted a total of 93,027 duplicate birth certificates nationwide.³

1. “Thirteenth progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in C™te dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2007/275), May 14, 2007.
2. “Fourteenth progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in C™te dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2007/ 593), October 1, 2007.
3. “Fifteenth progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in C™te dÕIvoire,” United Nations Security Council (S/2008/1), January 2, 2008.