On Sunday, former president and candidate Henri Konan Bédié called for “civil disobedience” in response to the candidacy of the current Ivorian head of state Alassane Ouattara.
The best response according to Bédié to face what he considers an abuse of authority.
At 86 years of age, the PDCI candidate is one of Ouattara’s only three opponents after the electoral commission ruled out 40 other potential candidates.
The argument for President Ouattara’s candidacy is based on the 2016 changes to the constitution.
Supporters of ADO, some of whom met in Paris on Sunday; argue that the new constitution resets the counters to zero and allows the president to run for a first term in the third republic and not a third term as his critics would have it.
However, Ouattara’s government has imposed a ban on demonstrations until September 30, 2020.
Candidates Excluded from the October 2020 Election
Among those excluded are two leading opposition figures, former President Laurent Gbagbo, 75, and former Prime Minister and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, 47.
Gbagbo and Soro, both in exile in Europe, were represented by alternates at the meeting.
Ouattara, 78, had said in March that he would not seek a third term but reversed his decision four months later when his favorite successor, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died of a heart attack.
Violent protests against Mr. Ouattara’s candidacy left about 15 people dead last month, reviving memories of the post-election bloodshed that took place nearly a decade ago in the former French colony.
Some observers fear a return to the levels of violence that killed 3,000 people after the 2010 presidential vote.
The conflict was triggered by the refusal of then-president Gbagbo to yield to the victor Ouattara, shattering Côte d’Ivoire’s reputation as a bastion of democracy in the region.
Last Wednesday, Gbagbo’s supporters called for mass protests against what they called Ouattara’s “dictatorship”.
Gbagbo’s candidacy was rejected on the grounds that he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison by an Ivorian court last November for looting the local branch of the Central Bank of West African States during the post-election crisis.
He was conditionally released by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague after being cleared of crimes against humanity in January 2019.
The former president is living in Brussels awaiting the outcome of the appeal against the ICC’s decision.
Soro’s election bid was also rejected after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, also in absentia, for embezzlement of public funds in April.
Soro provided military aid that enabled Ouattara to seize power after the conflict, but the two men had a falling out in early 2019.
Bedie, Gbagbo, and Ouattara dominated Ivorian politics for a quarter century.
Their advanced age – none is under 75 – contrasts with the extreme youthfulness of Ivory Coast’s population, where 40 percent of the population is under 15 years old.
Source: Africanews
