Ivory Coast, like most countries in Africa had made a huge progress in conducting elections over the past decade. Although there are continuing challenges in the conduct of elections the real problem is the immediate post-election period, particularly if the results are disputed.
Former president Laurent Gbargbo’s refusal to relinquish power after his election defeat in November 2010 is rightly seen as the chief cause of the bloody unrest that subsequently unfolded in Ivory Coast.
But he is not solely to be blamed. All the key electoral stakeholders made errors. The UN and the Ivorian electoral commission whose mandate is to run the elections and declare a winner.
Laurent Gbargbo had been in power for 10 yrs before the elections. This function they performed well.
Announcing Mr Ouattara as the winner and president-elect was all well and good, but swearing in Mr Ouattara as president at the Golf Hotel may have exceeded there mandate.
This rush to judgement was also replicated by the constitutional council, which hurriedly voided thousands of votes cast in favour of Mr Ouattara and swore in Mr Gbargbo.
Although the council has the constitutional power to swear in a new president, it had no authority to re-inaugurate the loosing candidate as president.
Moreover, the presidential term limit is 10yrs, a timeframe which Mr Gbargbo had been in power since 2000.
All the stakeholders thus boxed themselves into a corner with none willing to budge and no higher authority available in Ivory Coast to decide and implement the decision.
The stage was set for a violent showdown. The lesson, Ivory Coast needs a higher independent judicial body, which has the mandate to resolve post-electoral disputes and which has the tools to implement decisions and such a body must exist in other countries too.
Power sharing is an important way of resolving military conflict, but it does not always resolve political conflict. The West African body, ECOWAS has been criticised for its perceived failure to resolve the Ivorian deadlock.
It is true that ultimately, it was the military power of the pro-Ouattara, the 9,000 strong UN Mission team in that country and the French forces which ousted Mr Gbargbo, but ECOWAS sanctions had already eroded Mr Gbagbo’s power.
Ivory coast uses of the CFA, which it shares with seven other West African countries, and its participation in the regional central bank makes Mr Gbargbo highly vulnerable when the region handed over control of the Ivorian currency to his rival.   
It became increasingly difficult for Mr Gbargbo to pay the civil service and his soldiers. It brought increasing hardship for the Ivorian people, but it made it clear that without the financial wherewithal to pay his way, Mr Gbargbo’s days were numbered.
Non recognition of Mr Gbargbo’s representatives piled on the psychological pressure. This shows that sanctions especially ‘tight sanctions’ applied by neighbouring countries can work.
There are lingering questions regarding the management of the run-off, but Mr Gbargbo’s refusal to accept defeat, and his willingness to use force to stay in power was his undoing from the outset and to their credit, ECOWAS and the African Union recognised Mr Ouattara as the winner of the elections and insisted Mr Gbargbo to step down or face legitimate force.
Mr Gbargbo’s increasing intransigence and use of violence had already antagonised his neighbours. After a week-long siege, Mr Ouattara’s forces finally detained Mr Gbargbo in his residence he was implicated in the arrest and executions of dozens of political opponents during 2000 and 2001.
Mr Gbargbo had refused to hold elections and November 2010 saw him refusing to acknowledge his election defeat.
With the AU and ECOWAS taking an increasingly hard-line stands against illegal takeovers and recalcitrant incumbents in recent years, the continent had to be seen to back its pledge to support democratic transitions of power.
Ivory Coast is a step change in Africa’s support for electoral democracy and democratic transitions. Over the past decade the tradition has been for power sharing governments to resole post electoral disputes as seen in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
Ivory Coast may mark a shift away from the power sharing default setting, and back to the tradition of the electoral winner becoming the national leader and forming a government of their choice either inclusive or single party government it is too early to pass a definite judgement. But arguably, Africa’s commitment to a democratic transition in Ivory Coast means that for now at least, the continent passed the democratic test in that country.
Niger’s recent handover of power from a military junta to civilian leader Mahamadou Issoufou also makes April a good month for democratic transfer of power in sub Saharan Africa.
But ultimately it was a military coalition which included the UN, the French Licorne Special Forces and the pro-Ouattara forces which brought Gbargbo to heel.
Mr Ouattara say’s he will soon move to the presidential palace after pro-Gbargbo forces were accused of shelling residential areas and targeting UN peacekeepers, the UN security council passed a resolution authorising the use of force, but the supposed neutral UN forces taking sides in an internal conflict.
The use of legitimate and limited force for the protection of civilians in Ivory Coast and Libya problematic, but one thing is clear with millions of people displaced and increasing incidences of massacre, torture and rape of civilians, prompt action was needed to end the carnage.
Limited force should always be a last resort, but it was clear that it was needed in Ivory Coast to end the use of overwhelming force against civilians.
It is also clear that the UN mission in Ivory Coast will have to play a major role in stopping the wave of reprisal attacks on former Gbargbo supporters and in peace building.
Ivory Coast also shows the world that while multinational military operations in partnership with African forces can work well, the continent needs to prioritise and build capacity in rapid reaction and long term African multinational forces for crisis situations.
Meanwhile, France and the UN would do well to avoid triumphalism and old-school civilising mission ideas, the county’s people in partnership with the region, the continent and global community, saved Ivory Coast.