Women, very active in the campaign, still hope for more space in Côte d'Ivoire's politics
Ivorians are going to the polls on 25 October to elect their next president. Incumbent President Alassane Ouattara is running for a fourth term, facing four outsiders during a two-week-long campaign. Women are very involved in the hustings, both on the President's side and in the opposition. There are even two female candidates. However, women only represent about 30 percent of elected people in Côte d’Ivoire.
I report from Abidjan.
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Women are very involved in this campaign in Côte d'Ivoire, on the President's side and in the opposition.
The campaign started on Friday 10 October. Elected every five years, the President hold a very important role in the West African country, known for its rich cocoa and coffee productions.
The first round is scheduled for Saturday, with incumbent President Alassane Ouattara, 83, in power since 2011, running for a fourth term. He is facing four outsiders, including two women. Laurent Gbagbo (Simone's ex-husband) and Tidjane Thiam, were however excluded from the race by the constitutional council.
The two women are not expected to get a large part of the votes, but they do represent a keen involment of the female voters, campaigners and other elected officials in Côte d'Ivoire.
Some come to all meetings, others help organise these events. MPs, mayors and officials are also involved, even the candidates' wives, like Jean-Louis Billon's, Henriette Gomis Billon.
Candidates and campaigners
The two women also running for president. are Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, a former first lady, and Henriette Lagou, who told the media she hopes to embody a female alternative in a competition dominated by the traditional male figures of Ivorian political life.
Former Minister for Women under Laurent Gbagbo, Lagou also founded the movement "Two Million Girls for Gbagbo", to support the future of young Ivorien women and girls.
To seduce women voters, during the campaigns, both Ouattara and Billon, given as the president's main challenger, recruited dozens of women organisers and supporters.
According to Martine Vléon, national campaign director of the women for Billon, women play a key role.
"This page in our country's political history will be written by women who stand tall, dignified and determined — women who know that Côte d’Ivoire’s future will not be built without them," she said at the meeting, adding women always had a great role in Ivorian politics.
But the pillars remain the many female voters.
"We want peace in Côte d'Ivoire," a supporter of Billon told me. "Someone who will give us peace. We want to live in tranquility, in joy, in love. That's what we're looking for. We don't want someone who will come and create problems, no... We want to work."
For Ouattara's women supporters, what matters is the legacy of the president.
"I’m here to support my Papa ADO (Alassane Dramane Ouattara), the father of orphans, the one who built today’s great Côte d’Ivoire, which now looks like Paris. I don’t need to go to Paris anymore; I stay in my country, thanks to ADO. My country is the most beautiful country in the world. Papa ADO, I adore you."
Another female supporter added the President has done a lot for women in Côte d'Ivoire.
"He’s a good president. Thanks to him, there are so many markets today, and jobs," she told RFI. "We don’t struggle to sell anymore, you know what I mean?"
She says he is a good president for women too.
"Childbirth today, schools, it’s all free. There are evening classes for adults. And today we no longer suffer to give birth like before, you see? That’s why we women come out today to say thank you. May God give him a long life. You don’t change a winning team!"
Expectations
Among women journalists, a reference often comes to mind: the Women's March on Grand-Bassam, a protest movement initiated by women who traveled from Abidjan to Grand-Bassam from 22 to 24 December, 1949, to demand the release of political leaders imprisoned by the French colonial authorities.
Women are often credited in the country for holding family, businesses and society together, even if they are not as represented in parliament as men.
"Ivorian women have always carried the country on their shoulders," Vléon said at Billon's meeting in Abidjan, on 14 October. "They feed our families, educate our children, care for our sick and participate in economic and social life with courage and selflessness."
In 2023, women represented only 13 percent of Members of Parliament, 7 percent of mayors, and barely 6 percent of regional elected officials.
A law was however passed in 2019 to establish a 30 percent quota for women in list elections, increasingly implemented.
This was enough to boost female candidacies, but there is still a long way to go.
Solutions exist for greater representation of women in politics: enforcing quotas that already exist, aiming for 30 percent of women elected officials; training for female candidates; funds to support campaigns; raising awareness among children at school; and involving men in the fight for equality.
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