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United States Embassy (Abidjan)

Côte d'Ivoire: American Embassy's National Daily Press Review

16 October 2008

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This daily press review is compiled by the Information Section of the Public Affairs Office of the American Embassy in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

President Laurent Gbagbo and the Ivorian ex-President Henri Konan Bedie made the headlines in many newspapers today as both have been engaged in what the dailies called a pre-campaign in the run-up to the long-delayed presidential elections in Cote d'Ivoire. The voter registration exercise and a threat from cocoa farmers to blockade the industry over pricing were the other top stories in the newspapers. Ivorian newspapers, which were closed before the final 2008 presidential debate yesterday between John McCain and Barack Obama, carried some pre-event commentaries.

1. Fraternite Matin (a state-owned daily): A front-page story in this paper said President Gbagbo called on the people of Cote d'Ivoire to come together to support the country. The Ivorian leader reportedly called for peace, unity and solidarity, as he toured the central regions of the country. According to the report, President Gbagbo told supporters that he has decided to hold out an olive branch to Guillaume Soro [the former rebel leader turned Prime Minister] to build unity, adding "he who cannot forget the past cannot help support the progress of the country." The Ivorian leader was also quoted as saying that the Ouagadougou Political Agreement paves the way for peace. Commenting on current issues, President Gbagbo told the gathering that despite the problems facing the voter registration exercise, "the operation won't stop," adding "my hope is that you should all be able to vote and I will come back to tell you who you should vote for."

2. A front-page story in L'inter (an independent daily) said that the Ivorian ex-President Henri Konan Bedie is also engaged in a political tour in the central regions of Cote d'Ivoire. The paper quoted Mr. Bedie as saying, "FPI (the ruling party) continues to use any kind of obstacle to delay the elections... Gbagbo and his camp can no longer lead this country..." Reporting on the same event, Fraternite Matin quoted the Ivorian former leader as saying, "The failures of FPI are obvious! This regime has abandoned the development of the country; workers; farmers; youth, etc ... The FPI is prolonging the suffering of the Ivorian population; blocking the economic growth and the social development of the nation; strangling enterprises...."

3. Another story in Fraternite Matin said that Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro is racing against the clock to resolve problems facing the voter registration exercise. The Prime Minister met yesterday with representatives of the political parties in a bid to find ways "to improve the organization of the operation," reported the paper.

4. Still on the voter registration exercise, a story on the front-page of Notre Voie (a daily close to the ruling party) said that FESCI - the largest Cote d'Ivoire Student Union - has called on all students to register to vote. "There is no reason that students should stay away from this exercise because when our destiny is at stake, we need to have our say," FESCI's leader Mian Augustin was reported as saying.

5. In a related development, Nord-Sud Quotidien (a daily close to the opposition) carried a prominent story in which it quoted the youth leader of the PDCI-RDA party, Kouadio Konan Bertin, as calling on his followers "to not allow those who want to block the voter registration to trample on them." According to the report, the youth leader said: "I am ready to descend to the streets in case anybody tries to prevent our youths from getting registered." On the same issue, Yao Kouadio Seraphin, leader of the JUDPCI - the youth wing of another opposition party - reportedly said: "Nobody has the monopoly on violence." Meanwhile, the paper quoted the Deputy Secretary of JFPI - the youth wing of the ruling party - as saying, "We have never tried to block the voter registration exercise."

6. On another issue, a front-page story in L'inter said that cocoa farmers are threatening to launch an indefinite nationwide strike beginning October 20 to cripple the cocoa industry to protest the failure to apply promised price increases. The paper published a statement issued by SAPICOCI -- a farmers union - saying that although a cocoa management committee recently raised the reference farm-gate price by 40 percent to 700 CFA francs ($1.46) per kg, the commodity is still not sold at the new price.

7. On the US presidential elections, Fraternite Matin ran a story written before yesterday's debate between John McCain and Barack Obama that called the event "the last chance for Republican candidate, John McCain, as recent opinion polls put him behind his rival, Barrack Obama." The paper predicted that economic issues, especially a recent Congress-supported bail-out plan, would dominate the debate. The paper went on to comment that "the different plans proposed by the two candidates to salvage the American economy seemed not enough to convince the people of America."

Media Coverage of Embassy Activities

1. Fraternite Matin (a state-owned daily); L'inter (an independent daily) and Le Temps (a daily close to the ruling FPI party) positively reported on a DVC program organized October 14, 2008 by the U.S. Embassy on the topic: "Media and Elections." The reports emphasized ARS-Paris speaker George Kazolias's message inviting journalists to balance their stories and to stick to the facts. TV2 (a state-run TV network) carried footage of the program, while AIP, a state-owned news agency published a positive story on its website: http://www.aip.ci.

2. L'inter also carried in its October 15 edition a story saying that the US Embassy in Abidjan congratulated REJECI - a network of young entrepreneurs in Cote d'Ivoire -- for its work (note: to encourage free market values and small business skills among youth). With a group photo showing the Public Affairs Officer with members of REJECI, the paper said the network was created with the joint support of the US Embassy and UNDP. The president of the network reportedly thanked the US Embassy for "its commitment to working for the insertion of youth into the social fiber."

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