A few days ago there was a presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire, or Ivory Coast as it's known to Anglos who refuse to learn a second language. Time was up for Laurent Gbagbo, who had been president since 2010 and presided over the collapse of the Ivorian economy.
How bad was it? So bad that the African Development Bank moved its headquarters from the old Ivorian capital, Abidjan, to Tunis, which is in the Arab part of Africa. (A previous president had decided to move the capital from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro because it was his home town.) TIA.
The Ivorian constitution allowed M. Gbagbo to succeed himself, provided of course that he was duly elected by the people. So an election was held and -- surprise, surprise -- M. Gbagbo was defeated. At least, someone else got more votes.
M. Gbagbo proved to be a sore loser, and refuses (the present tense is correct) to concede. BBC News Africa calls it "a classic case of an African incumbent refusing to stand down after losing an election".
As I write, I am listening to a report from Abidjan in which commentators are attempting to describe the confusion that arises from living in a country with two capitals and, now, two presidents.
Ivory Coast is in western Africa. All those involved in this farce are African, by which I mean black. But Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast are not the only countries to be subjected to misrule by corrupt and incompetent blacks. See next post.
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