Presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire: Pascal Affi N'Guessan joins the opposition's appeal
Pascal Affi N'Guessan, August 27, 2020 in Abidjan.
AP Photo / Diomande Ble Blonde
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The president of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), one of the four candidates for the October presidential election, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, held a press conference on Tuesday, September 22 at the party's headquarters in Abidjan.
Absent from the big meeting of the opposition coalition last Sunday, his position on the electoral process was eagerly awaited.
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From our correspondent in Abidjan,
François Hume-Ferkatadji
His answer is clear: he joins the coalition and the call for "
civil disobedience
" of
candidate Henri Konan Bédié
, denouncing the candidacy of
Alassane Ouattara
for a third term and demanding reforms of the Constitutional Council and the Electoral Commission. independent (CEI) before the first round of voting.
Otherwise, he will withdraw his candidacy.
White shirt, dark suit,
Pascal Affi N'Guessan
, painted a worrying picture of the political situation in the country, pointing to the risk of clashes, or even a new civil war.
The only solution to a regime that he describes as "
dictatorial
" is to unite the opposition.
According to him, "
the time cannot be for ulterior motives, for settling of scores, for hidden agendas ... We must be up to the task, show this spirit of responsibility, because, I tell you with immense seriousness. , beyond our people, beyond our differences and our differences, there is the national interest, there is the Ivory Coast.
And the national interest must take precedence over all other considerations.
"
"
I will not be the candidate for a truncated ballot
"
The president of the FPI vigorously denounced the decisions of the Constitutional Council which "
crossed a red line
".
He criticizes the lack of reform of the CIS, and the government's rejection of the recommendations of the African Court of Human Rights.
He draws the conclusions by declaring that in the event of the
status quo,
he would withdraw from the presidential race: “
I will not be the candidate of a truncated ballot, a dummy candidate, in other words.
Obviously, for me, a candidate for the presidential election, it is not conceivable to support in any way an electoral process which would be rigged in advance and the result of which would be stalled, closed
.
"
Adhering to
the appeal of the opposition forces
, he urges the FPI activists to “
stand ready
” for mobilization.
"
We will go as far as Mr. Ouattara wants to take us
," he said in an elliptical formulation.
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