Managing Election- Relation Violence for Democratic Stability in Ghana Côte d'Ivoire The outcome of the 28 November 2010 presidential election run­off between incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara was a political stalemate in which there were two sets of'final' results', two swearing-in ceremonies, and two presidents. Four days after the run-off, the Independent Electoral Commission(CEI) went before the international media and declared Ouattara the winner(with 54.1 percent of the vote). The following day, the Constitutional Council took to the state­owned Radiodiffusion-Télévision Ivoirienne(RTI) and proclaimed Gbagbo the winner(with 51.45 percent of valid votes cast). Both candidates inaugurated themselves as president at separate functions and formed rival governments. Sporadic violence and gunfire then punctuated a six-month long stalemate and deepened the longstanding division of the population into the pro-Ouattara north(xenophobically labelled Ivoiriens douteux; i.e.,'doubtful Ivorians' because many were of Burkinabe and Malian origin) and the pro-Gbagbo south(the so-called vrais Ivoiriens multiséculaires; i.e.,'true ancient Ivorians”). The Ivoirité ('Ivorian-ness') ideology and associated rancour had been simmering since the 1995 presidential elections when the candidacy of Ouattara was rejected because of doubts about his nationality. These geopolitical divisions also deepened inherent ethnic and religious dichotomies. The standoff was eventually to be settled by armed combat in which pro-Ouattara forces, with the backing of French forces, 223