Inside Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). Ivory Coast History on Politics, Art, Culture, Ethnic groups and migration. The economic situation continues to deteriorate through the 1990s, with students, civil servants and soldiers protesting on different occasions because of inflation and diminishing value of scholarships and wages. President Houphouët-Boigny dies in December 1993, and this leads to a competition for power within the PDCI between prime minister Alassane Ouattara and parliamentary spokesman Henri Konan Bédié, who is appointed interim president until election are held in 1995. Bédié receives support from the Baoulé-dominated PDCI leadership, Ouattara is appointed vice president of the International Monetary Fund and moves to Washington DC in the meantime, Ouattara’s supporters are removed from positions of power in PDCI, and this group breaks out of the party and creates the new party RDR. Read the entire Book. Vacation package.