Mamadou Koulibaly

Mamadou Koulibaly (born 21 April 1957) is an Ivorian politician, Chairman of LIDER (Liberté et Démocratie pour la République), a classical liberal political party he founded in July 2011.

[1] When Guéï was ousted following the disputed results of the October 2000 presidential election and FPI leader Laurent Gbagbo was sworn in as president, Koulibaly retained his post as Minister of the Economy and Finances, while gaining the role of Government Spokesman.

According to Koulibaly, UNOCI had ceased to play a positive role in the resolving the Ivorian conflict and was only exacerbating the situation.

[8] In June 2010, Koulibaly accused Désiré Tagro—the Minister of the Interior and another top ally of Gbagbo—of embezzling money and showing regional favoritism regarding admissions to a training school for the police.

Regarding the severe political controversy that had erupted between Gbagbo and Ouattara, Koulibaly urged calm and stressed that the dispute should be peacefully resolved through the creation of a national unity government.

Ouattara appeared willing to leave the existing National Assembly, dominated by the FPI and chaired by Koulibaly, in place for the time being.

[14] Koulibaly finally resigned on 12 July 2011 over the unwillingness of hardline members of the FPI to accept Ouattara's victory and take steps to form a credible political opposition party, LIDER.