Côte d’Ivoire: RHDP deputies call on Alassane Ouattara to run for a third term in office

A little over 100 days before the Ivorian presidential election, the question burns everyone’s lips: will Alassane Ouattara finally resolve to run? The death of his former Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who was the candidate of the ruling RHDP party, has upset plans.

The RHDP therefore brings together its elected officials to find a new candidate.

The deputies, senators, and mayors of the party in power are meeting Wednesday and Thursday. Elected officials must vote on the question of sponsorship, but also on the question of the candidacy of President Alassane Ouattara. However, it didn’t take long for MPs to get the ball rolling and call on the president to run for a third term. This actually ties in with the position of RHDP party executive director Adama Bictogo.

From the outset, Adama Bictogo and his deputy directors paid tribute to Amadou Gon Coulibaly, the Prime Minister who died two weeks ago and who was nominated at the base as the dolphin of Alassane Ouattara.

He set out the agenda, namely the sponsorship process and then it is mostly about tuning the different violins and composing a single message. Namely, a call to President Alassane Ouattara to represent himself. The deputies justify their choice by the exceptional circumstances, which are currently in progress.

If Alassane Ouattara enters the presidential race, it would send a strong signal, he who has always said he would pass the torch to the next generation, although he has also repeated that the new constitution, the one adopted in 2016, allows him to run for an additional term, a third term.

He also repeated several times that if Henri Konan Bédié, ex-ally of Ouattara, who went into the opposition two years ago now, intended to stand for these elections – which is the case too-, he would finally show up.

 

And for the RHDP, it is not as if he was going back on his word, insofar as he took guarantees, saying ‘‘if Bédié goes, I will go. Constitution allows me.’’

The ruling party therefore believes that this is not a lie from the president. He has always been consistent and he does it for the good of the country.