Abidjan was largely quiet and peaceful on Sunday (30 October) when there was a visibly low turnout in Ivory Coast’s constitutional referendum following a short campaign for changes the president said will help end years of unrest. Voters were asked to approve a draft constitution containing provisions that the opposition contended will significantly strengthen the power of the presidency, with one of the proposed modification effectively scrapping a clause that sets 75 as the age limit to be able to run for president. Led by 74-year-old President Alassane Ouattara and the ruling coalition, the ‘Yes’ camp campaign kicked off last week, while Human Rights Watch claimed opposition parties’ ability to explain their position to the public during their ‘No’ campaign had been “severely undermined”. Violence was reported in between 100 and 150 polling stations out of the nations’ 10,000. In some cases, stations were held up by young men with knives and ballot boxes were taken away, while others were attacked with men armed with clubs and machetes, according to Reuters. Overall, however, the issues lay with the process, participation and inclusiveness rather than the violence.
Local reports have said the turnout fluctuated between 15% and 40% for each polling station – lower than the 2015 presidential election when 54.6% of voters cast ballots.
In this case, voters were asked to choose either a green piece of paper (‘Yes’) or a red one (‘No’) before putting one in an envelope and the other in the bin. Ivorians had concerns about the fact that this meant a voter could leave with a paper as a token for cash from one of the governing parties – but these fears were not evidenced during the vote. There were concerns these pieces of paper could easily be stuffed in the ballot box – unlike with a tick-the-box vote.
Full Article: Ivory Coast: A referendum vote mirred by a low turnout and machete attacks.
