Côte d'Ivoire Tackles Vexed Issue Of Nationality

Côte d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara presents to the parliament the draft of a new constitution, on October 5, 2016 in Abidjan ©Issouf Sanogo (AFP)

In Côte d'Ivoire, the National Assembly has adopted a controversial draft constitution by a landslide, changing the eligibility rules for candidates running for president.

AFP

BBC News report continues:

The next step is to present the constitution to the electorate in a referendum. The opposition is likely to boycott the vote, making it easier for President Alassane Ouattara to gain the necessary majority for it to become the supreme law of the land. 

Mr Ouattara says the new constitution will lead to Côte d'Ivoire turning a new page, ending many years of strife over who is eligible to serve as president.  

The issue might seem personal - it scraps the requirement that both parents of presidential candidates must be native-born Ivorians. This was used in the past to prevent Mr Ouattara from running for office. 

But many Ivorians will support the new draft, particularly those who have family ties to neighbouring states..They, like the president, faced discrimination, and were often accused of not being real Ivorians.

They tend to live in northern Côte d'Ivoire where a rebellion was launched some 15 years ago against the then-government to end perceived discrimination.  

So if Mr Ouattara, a northerner, had left office without tackling the issue they would have felt betrayed. 

Côte d'Ivoire Lawmakers Approve New Constitution Draft

Meanwhile AFP reports that Côte d'Ivoire's national assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the draft of a new constitution proposed by President Alassane Ouattara, paving the way for a referendum later this month.

With Ouattara's supporters dominating parliament after the opposition boycotted 2011 elections, 239 of 249 lawmakers voted in favour, easily surpassing the two thirds majority required.

Just eight voted against and two abstained while one failed to show in protest.

Former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, now speaker of the assembly, said after the vote that lawmakers had "written a page of our country's history."

Soro added that the text, Ouattara's brainchild, sought to put an end to years of instability.

Soro said that ultimately "only the sovereign people can decide on the fate of this constitution," and they would have the chance to do so in a referendum due on October 30.

Ouattara, 73, promised to deliver a new constitution after he was re-elected to a second five-year term a year ago. The new draft notably scraps the stipulation that both parents of presidential candidates must be have been born in Côte d'Ivoire.

In the past, this clause prevented Ouattara himself for running for the country's top office.

It was also resented by many in the north of the country, where many people have family connections to neighbouring countries, as a symbol of exclusion. The question of national identity -- of who is a real Ivorian -- has long been a source of violent friction in Côte d'Ivoire.

Other proposals in the new draft include setting up an elected vice presidency and a senate, one third of whose members would be nominated by the president.

Last week, two dozen opposition parties denounced the proposed new draft as "undemocratic" and said it would spark the kind of unrest seen after former president Laurent Gbagbo, now on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, refused to step down in 2010.

Gbagbo's own Ivorian Popular Front was one party opposing the draft constitution.