As Côte d’Ivoire prepares for presidential elections scheduled for 31 October, political divisions are coming to a head, accompanied by a spate of deadly violence following President Alassane Ouattara’s declaration of running for the third term.
There’s also fears about a fair election after 40 out of 44 candidates were rejected by the Constitutional Council.
Ahead of the polls, there have been calls, lead by France, to delay the elections to minimise any further violence and facilitate dialogue among political parties. Opposition groups also want the vote postponed and a transition government installed until the dispute is settled.
The opposition organised a major meeting in Abidjan on Saturday, 10 October, with the goal of banding together to block Ouattara’s presidential bid. With just a little over three weeks to go before citizens cast their vote, Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential election has never seemed so uncertain. Although Kouadio Konan Bertin (KKB) still intends to stand for election, Henri Konan Bédié and Pascal Affi N’Guessan have expressed reservations about participating.
Like the rest of the opposition, the presidents of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) and one of the two wings of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) continue to demand, as a prerequisite to their participation in the upcoming election, that Ouattara withdraw his candidacy for a third term and that the institutions involved in the electoral process – the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) and the Constitutional Council – be dissolved.
The country’s constitution only allows for two presidential terms. But 78-year-old Ouattara has argued that since a new constitution was adopted in 2016, his two terms of office under the old constitution should not really be counted.
Ouattara, who has been in power for nearly a decade, decided to run for a third term after his chosen successor unexpectedly passed away.
Since he had previously promised not to run again for a third term, the political waters of Ivory Coast are suddenly that much more muddied following weeks of upheaval.
On Saturday, opposition leaders and their supporters joined forces in a united front at a rally of over 30,000 at the Felix Houphouet Boigny stadium in the capital Abidjan, against the sought and perceived unconstitutional third term of incumbent President Ouattara.
The event was seen as a major test for the opposition in finding consensus.
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Source: IOL
