Alassane Dramane Ouattara , born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician and president of the Rally of the Republicans (RDR), an Ivorian political party. As the RDR leader and candidate, he was a candidate in the 2010 Côte d'Ivoire presidential election, where he was one of the top two candidates in the first round of voting. In the second round, he faced incumbent Laurent Gbagbo; Ouattara, as of March 2011, asserts that he won this election and is the elected President of Côte d'Ivoire. Many sovereign authorities outside Côte d'Ivoire accept the validity of Ouattara's claim; however, the other candidate, Gbagbo, had not accepted this claim as of March 2011, leading to a major political crisis in this sub-Saharan African nation.
Ouattara was the unelected Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to December 1993; under the national constitution in effect at that time, he was appointed to the post by the late President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. A technocrat, Ouattara trained as an economist and worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).
Early life
Ouattara was born on January 1, 1942, in Dimbokro, Côte d'Ivoire, French West Africa.Outtara's father's side of the family is from Burkina Faso, a fact that twice barred him from running for the presidency. He received a bachelor's of science degree in 1965 from the Drexel Institute of Technology, which is now called Drexel University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ouattara then obtained both his master's degree in economics in 1967 and a doctorate in economics in 1972 from the University of Pennsylvania.
Career at financial institutions
He was an economist for the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. from 1968 to 1973, and afterwards he was the BCEAO's Chargé de Mission in Paris from 1973 to 1975. With the BCEAO, he was then Special Advisor to the Governor and Director of Research from February 1975 to December 1982 and Vice Governor from January 1983 to October 1984. From November 1984 to October 1988 he was Director of the African Department at the IMF, and in May 1987 he additionally became Counsellor to the Managing Director at the IMF. On October 28, 1988 he was appointed as Governor of the BCEAO, and he was sworn in on December 22, 1988.
Prime Minister
In April 1990, Ivorian President Félix Houphouët-Boigny appointed Ouattara as Chairman of the Interministerial Committee for Coordination of the Stabilization and Economic Recovery Programme of Côte d'Ivoire; while holding that position, Ouattara also remained in his post as BCEAO Governor. He subsequently became Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire on November 7, 1990, after which Charles Konan Banny replaced him as Interim BCEAO Governor.
While serving as Prime Minister, Ouattara also carried out presidential duties for a total of 18 months, including the period from March 1993 to December 1993, when Houphouët-Boigny was ill. Houphouët-Boigny died on December 7, 1993, and Ouattara announced his death to the nation, saying that "Côte d'Ivoire is orphaned". A brief power struggle ensued between Ouattara and Henri Konan Bédié, the President of the National Assembly, over the presidential succession; Bédié prevailed and Ouattara resigned as Prime Minister on December 9.Ouattara then returned to the IMF as Deputy Managing Director, holding that post from July 1, 1994, to July 31, 1999.
