The scars of the 2010 post-elections violence and idea of nationality have to be tackled.

The President-elect of Côte d’Ivoire Alassane Ouattara while addressing his party supporters shortly before the October 25, 2015 presidential election urged them, “We must reinforce reconciliation and social cohesion. I ask each of you to forgive... to act as if nothing had happened in the past, whatever the insults and humiliations," media reports quoted.

Speaking on the national radio after he was declared winner of the election, Ouattara  said he will give priority to prosperity as a means to have more reconciliation, BBC reported. To him, justice must take its course, victims compensated and the opposition must play its role as the opposition.  The idea of reconciliation runs through Ouattara’s pre-election and pro-election declarations, signifying that the country needs reconciliation.

Visible Political Camps

Though Ouattara was re-elected for the second term after acceding the supreme magistracy in 2010, the scars of the 2010 post-election conflict still haunt the country and makes it divided. The pro-Ouattara and former President Laurent Gbagbo camps remain visible in the country. After being defeated in the 2010 presidential election Gbagbo clung to power and the ensuing war to oust him caused the lost of over 3,000 lives. 

Gbagbo is facing trial at the International Court of Justice at The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity committed during the 2010 post-election violence. His supporters are therefore vehement in their insistence on the fact that for veritable reconciliation to take place in the country, Gbagbo and his supporters some of whom are being tried back in Côte d’Ivoire should be freed.  

Another aftermath of the 2010 post-election violence is the division in Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party whose candidate Pascal Affi N'Guessan came second after Ouattara in the October 25 election scoring 9.29 per cent of the votes cast. The party split ahead of the elections as other senior officials considered participation in the election with their founder behind bars as treason.

Opposition supporters who were arrested and detained before the vote have to be released. France Inter cited Marian Marie France Cisse as stating that tens of oppositions supporters were arrested for demonstrating against Alassane Ouattara and she was the lone person freed. Amnesty International also states that they counted 422 young political prisoners detained in horrible conditions.

Alassane Ouattara has been re-elected for the second term but many Ivorians have kept on rejecting him as not being from Côte d’Ivoire, hence not qualified to be Head of State. Many supporters Côte d’Ivoire by the former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, reports say.

The north-south cleavage remains perceptible with President Ouattara accused of favouring mostly people from the north in key positions in government and other aspects of national life. Francis Atkindes, professor of political sociology, is cited as saying that nothing has change in terms of governance as Ouattara is pursuing an implicit policy of ethnical catch up by injecting northerners into the administration.  

Gbagbo, he said, adopted the same policy favouring mostly southerners in government and this led to the crisis in the country.  Besides discrimination and favoritism based on ethnic lines, Côte d’ Ivoire is also confronted by the  allegations that the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to examine the 2010/2011 post-election violence in both pro-Gbagbo and pro-Ouattara camps has remained confidential. A majority of the members of the pro-Ouattara militia found guilty are said to be free while those of Gbagbo camp are being punished.