At least two have died in a series of violent clashes between political activists in Ivory Coast during the past week. The groups cannot agree over a national identification scheme, which is meant to pave the way for fair elections to be held later this year. From Ivory Coast, Franz Wild explores for VOA what the identification program is and what it means for ordinary Ivorians.
Outside the city hall of Abobo, a mainly poor district in Ivory Coast's biggest city Abidjan, crowds are jostling to get in. The program to register the estimated 3.5 million people born in Ivory Coast, but still without any form of legal identification has kicked off. Those affected line up for a hearing before the judges, who will issue them with a supplementary birth certificate.
The process may be open to anyone without papers, but only those who are Ivorian will eventually be able to vote in presidential elections, which many still hope will take place by the end of October.
Supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo object to the program, because they say there are not enough measures to prevent fraud in the rebel-held north. They say this will enable many foreigners to gain Ivorian nationality and then illegally take part in the elections.
Northern rebels tried to topple Mr. Gbagbo in 2002 and took control of the north after a brief civil war. They say northerners are treated as foreigners and were taken off the electoral lists before the last elections.
Emerging with a bright smile on her face and waving the first legal document with her name on it is 24-year-old Fatoumata Konate.
She says, she has never had any official papers, and, she says, she could not go to school because of that. She says, all her friends went to school, but now that she has her papers, she says, she is truly happy.
Konate missed out as a child, she says, because her parents separated when she was still very young. Both her parents died when she was still a child.
She now helps her sister run a food stall across the street from the city hall. Customers gather around for lunch.
In order to be recognized as an Ivorian by the state, Konate had to bring two witnesses, who knew her parents.
She says, the witnesses know she is Ivorian, because they know her parents village. She says, being a witness is no small affair and you cannot lie.
Saying it still feared fraud, Mr. Gbagbo's party has remained opposed to the registration hearings and said it would stop them by any means.
