The Ivorian people go to the polls on  Sunday December 11 to elect their representatives in parliament. An important event from which many Ivorians will be excluded, as they are unable to prove their identity.

By Selay Marius Kouassi, Abidjan

Exactly a year after the presidential elections of November 2010, which plunged Ivory Coast into months of violence, the Ivorian people are casting their votes in new polls: the legislative elections.

Timid start
The electoral campaign got off to a timid start in Abidjan as well as in other Ivorian cities, with very few of the usual noisy meetings. Scattered campaign posters are the only visible signs of an ongoing electoral campaign.

On December 11, the Ivorian people will go to the polls, except those answering the call of their political leaders not to partake. And those who are excluded from the electoral process because they have become ‘anonymous’ - people who are unable to prove their identity.

Anonymous
A large number of those who will not be casting their votes due to a lack of identification documents are residents of the Niambly camp for internally displaced people, near Duékoué in the western part of the country. Guéï Marc, a camp resident, recalls how many of them lost their identity documents.

“One night, we were suddenly woken up by the noise of flames. Members of a political group had staged a surprise attack. We were all concerned about escaping the blaze more than we were about saving any belongings,” he says.

Marc and many other village residents fled without taking any document that could prove their identity. “There is no proof that I actually exist! There is no proof that I am me, no identification document. So what’s the point of me going to the voting station?” laments an emotional Patrice Kéhi.

“The results of the polls will not reflect the choice of the people. I think some politicians deliberately want to keep people like us away from the polls,” he adds. For him, the December 11 legislative elections “are nothing but an electoral charade.”

Challenging task
In Niambly camp NGOs provide the internally displaced people with basic living necessities as well as medical care. A challenging task, just like the restoration of their identity.

“We’ve tried to put together an identification form from the information they gave us. But it is not an easy task and the identification forms that we produce cannot be used as an identification document or a voting card. It is simply a document intended for local administrative use,” explains Y.A, who works at the Niambly camp. He wishes to remain anonymous.

Former executioners
The Independent Electoral Commission has recently published a statement inviting people who have lost their identity documents to apply for an identity certificate at police stations, in order to be able to vote in the upcoming elections.

But applying for an identification certificate at police stations is easier said than done. Most stations have been burned to the ground or partially destroyed during the post-electoral crisis. The only operational police stations are found in the southern part of the country.

For Marc, Kéhi and many other internally displaced people in Niambly camp, returning to their village now or even moving to the city is not an option. They don’t want to face those they regard as their “former executioners”, who have taken ownership of their cocoa and coffee farms. Without an ID, how can a person prove his identity and the ownership of the property he is claiming?