Daniel Kablan Duncan was sworn in as the new Vice-president of Côte d’Ivoire on Monday– the first vice president in the history of the country. His appointment comes after changes to the constitution were approved last year in an effort to calm social and policitcal unrest following several mutinies and strikes.
In principle, Daniel Kablan Duncan has the advantage of being inclusive.
An experienced technocrat, who served five years as Prime Minister and held several key posts before that, he comes from the southeast of the country, while his Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly is from Kohorgo in the North.
His government respects the delicate North-South split in Côte d’Ivoire.
President Alassane Ouattara has long been accused of favoring Northerners who helped bring him to power. Kablan Duncan’s appointment shoudl address that.
On top of that, these same Northerners are rebelling. A two-day mutiny by soldiers demanding better pay and living conditions, recently paralyzed several cities in the West African nation, including the government’s stronghold of Kohorgo.
“One of the reasons behind the mutinies is that forces loyal to Guillaume Soro [President of the National Assembly] are unhappy with changes to the constitution which include bringing in a new Vice President, likely to weaken their bargaining power,” Nick Branson, a senior researcher at the Africa Research institute in London told RFI by phone on Monday.
“These guys have made it clear they’re not going to go without a fight. They resent the snub they seem to have viewed, having Soro overlooked as the heir apparent to Ouattara, and losing their seat at the table as it were.”
Under the old constitution, the President of the National Assembly–Guillaume Soro in this case–was next in line to replace Ouattara.
However, since his re-election in October 2015, Ouattara has attempted to reduce the power of those former rebels.
“This may have spurred combatants once under Soro’s command to agitate against the changes and remind the political class of the unresolved grievances within the army,” explains Branson.
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