Ivory Coast: Alassane Ouattara promises a "peaceful electoral year"

Like an air of electoral campaign before the hour ... Tuesday, December 31, the president of Côte d'Ivoire Alassane Ouattara, the ex-president Henri Konan Bédié and the ex-president of the National Assembly Guillaume Soro, launched almost simultaneously on the airwaves and on the Internet their New Year's speeches.

Alassane Ouattara promised "a peaceful electoral year" in 2020, the year of the next presidential election, while his two opponents denounced the regime's attacks on democracy.

In his traditional speech broadcast on public television at 8 p.m. (local and GMT), President Ouattara wanted to be reassuring, while political life is already tense ten months from the presidential election scheduled for October, ten years later the terrible post-electoral crisis that left 3,000 dead.

My Message to the Nation, on the occasion of the new year, this Tuesday, December 31, 2019. # VoeuxàLaNationCIV https://t.co/sgcotWtoHy pic.twitter.com/iKrP97oXUv

"2020 will be a peaceful electoral year, I promise you," he said, urging "all actors in Ivorian political life to show responsibility by preserving the peace".

To prepare for the elections, the Ivorian president said he had asked Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly to "meet with political parties and civil society in January, before finalizing work on the electoral code".

"No attempt at destabilization can succeed," he insisted, repeating comments already made on Saturday.

Guillaume Soro denounces a "cabal" against him

The candidacy of Guillaume Soro, first candidate declared in the election, is burdened by his legal troubles. When he wanted to return to Côte d'Ivoire after six months in Europe, the former Prime Minister, ex-head of the Ivorian rebellion of the 2000s, was accused of "conspiracy" by the Ivorian justice, which the suspected of having prepared "a civil and military insurrection" to seize power.

Defying President Ouattara by speaking at the same time as him, but on social networks of which he is a follower for his communication, Guillaume Soro, 47, strongly refuted these accusations.

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"This whole cabal aims to distance me from the presidential race of which I am the favorite," he said. He castigated "the innumerable human rights abuses, in favor of an incredible hardening of the regime", which seeks to "muzzle the opposition".

Henri Konan Bédié speaks of "instrumentalization of justice by the executive power"

A little earlier, Henri Konan Bédié, leader of the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI), the main opposition movement, denounced an "instrumentalisation of justice by the executive power", which "demeans the rule of law and democracy ", on the PDCI webTV launched in November.

He criticized "the government's refusal to create the conditions conducive to a peaceful presidential election", questioning the electoral commission which it considers unbalanced in favor of the power, and raising the question of the free establishment of the cards d identity, required to vote.

My new year message 2020 #CIV # CIV225 #cotedivoire https://t.co/NHETqd2IgQ pic.twitter.com/1qhvTKZgzB

Alassane Ouattara, 77, elected in 2010, then re-elected in 2015, leaves the mystery hovering over a possible candidacy for a third mandate, although the Constitution allows only two. But he could launch his Prime Minister in his place, according to observers.

Henri Konan Bédié, 85, who presided over Côte d'Ivoire from 1993 to 1999, and was chased away by a military coup, has still not revealed his intentions either.

The two men were allies from 2011 to 2018 and their parties ruled together. The PDCI having supported Alassane Ouattara in the 2010 and 2015 elections, he hoped for a lift for the presidential election in 2020. Who did not come, causing a resounding divorce.

Long ally, too, of Alassane Ouattara whom he helped bring to power during the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011, Guillaume Soro then fell out with him, until the break in early 2019, the chief of the state restraining its presidential ambitions, according to observers.

In an interview published on Sunday, Guillaume Soro said that he had concluded an electoral agreement with Henri Konan Bédié who, according to him, would run for the presidential election. The "Sphinx of Daoukro" neither confirmed nor denied.

The political atmosphere is tense in Côte d'Ivoire in the run-up to this election. After the Soro affair last week, the Ivorian justice system sentenced Monday the former head of the Young Ivorian Patriots Charles Blé Goudé to 20 years in prison, close to ex-president Laurent Gbagbo. The latter was also sentenced to 20 years in prison in November. Both are on parole in Europe after their acquittal by the International Criminal Court.

With AFP

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