The Ivorian Popular Front (; abbr. FPI) is a

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...

and

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

History

FPI was founded in exile in 1982 by history professor Laurent Gbagbo, Aboudramane Sangaré, and other allies during the one-party rule of President

Félix Houphouët-Boigny Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was an Ivorian politician and physician who served as the first List of heads of state of Ivory Coast, pr ...

. Politically inspired by the

French Socialist Party The Socialist Party ( , PS) is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politics, left-wing List of political parties in France, political party in France. It holds Social democracy, social democratic and Pro-Europeanism, pro-European v ...

, the FPI was until 2011 a full member of the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...

(SI). The expulsion of the FPI from the SI occurred as a result of the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis. Gbagbo was sworn in as President after the heavily disputed presidential election of October 22, 2000. In the parliamentary election held on 10 December 2000 and 14 January 2001, the party won 96 out of 225 seats. The party president is Pascal Affi N'Guessan, a former prime minister. Following Gbagbo's election as President, he was required to step down as party leader, and N'Guessan was elected to head the party at its Third Extraordinary Congress in July 2001. The Ivorian Popular Front

boycotted A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict ...

the 2011 parliamentary election, accusing the electoral commission of bias in favour of

Alassane Ouattara Alassane Dramane Ouattara (; ; born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician and economist who has been List of heads of state of Ivory Coast, President of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) since 2010. An economist by profession, he worked for the I ...

and accusing the army of intimidating FPI supporters during the campaign. The party also complained of having been limited in informing the electorate, with the pro-FPI newspaper having been banned by the government and many of its journalists arrested or jailed. On 8 August 2015, N'Guessan was designated as the FPI's presidential candidate for the October 2015 presidential election. He denounced the incarceration of Gbagbo by the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...

and political conditions under Ouattara: "Peace isn't only the silence of weapons. Can we say that Ivory Coast is in peace when President Gbagbo is in The Hague? With hundreds of political prisoners in jail, Ivory Coast is not in peace." Some hardliners in the FPI did not want to participate in elections as long as Gbagbo remained imprisoned, but others felt the party needed to remain engaged in the electoral process. In the December 2016 parliamentary election, only three FPI candidates, including N'Guessan, were elected to the National Assembly. On December 23,

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, the FPI said it would participate in the 2021 Ivorian parliamentary election.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

National Assembly elections

References

{{Authority control 1982 establishments in Ivory Coast Democratic socialist parties in Africa Former member parties of the Socialist International Ivorian nationalism Left-wing nationalist parties Political parties established in 1982 Political parties in Ivory Coast Popular fronts Social democratic parties in Africa Socialist parties in Ivory Coast