Cote d’Ivoire’s democracy deadlock

More than two weeks after a disputed presidential election, the world’s largest cocoa producer is still facing chaos and confusion as rival leaders continue to claim their right to the presidency.

Two presidents and multiple paradoxes, the main one being that Allasane Outtara, the legitimate president-elect, has sworn himself in unconstitutionally while Laurent Gbagbo, the defeated incumbent, has refused to relinquish power.

The presidential vote in Cote d’Ivoire was intended to reunify the country after a 2002 civil war. But violence is now threatening to plunge the West African nation, once the economic hub of the continent, into another conflict.

Dozens have been killed in street protests and the violence is threatening to spread beyond the main city Abidjan.

Is it the end of seven years of peace in Cote d’Ivoire? Can this once prosperous nation step back from the brink? Can the UN mission on the ground prevent a full war? And what can the international community do to resolve the stalemate?

Joining the programme are Francois Ndengwe, the founder of the African Advisory Board, Sylvain Touati, a research fellow on Africa, for the French Institute for International Affairs, and Ayo Johnson, the editor of Viewpoint Africa.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Friday, December 17, 2010.