As a presidential election looms, the long shadow cast by the civil war still makes many Ivorians nervous
countries excite investors quite as much as Ivory Coast. Its economy, which is forecast to expand by more than 7% this year and next, is among the fastest growing in Africa. Its efforts to cut red tape and make it easier to start a company or get loans have won praise from private firms and multilateral institutions, such as theand World Bank—which has bumped it up by 25 places on its “ease of doing business” index since 2015.
Much of the credit for this economic boom goes to Alassane Ouattara, a former economist who has been president since 2011. During his term the government has sold stakes in state-owned companies and invested in new roads and other infrastructure. But economic reform has not been matched by political change, prompting worries ahead of a presidential election next year that the country may slip back into conflict. A disputed election in 2010 led to a dreadful year-long civil war.
Few ordinary folk would be unhappy to see Mr Gbagbo disqualified: it was his refusal to concede defeat after he lost the election in 2010 that sparked the civil war that led to the deaths of about 3,000 people. His political career ought surely to have ended in 2011, when Mr Ouattara’s forces winkled him out of his bunker in Abidjan, the country’s commercial capital, or when he was arrested later that year to face charges of war crimes before the International Criminal Court .
Ivorians strongly endorse the two-term limit for presidents and more than a quarter think their representatives are corrupt. The economy may be booming, but democracy is in a slump. “Politics is still the easiest way to make money,” shrugs André Braud-Mensah, a businessman.section of the print edition under the headline
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