A dozen relatives of the former Prime Minister and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, candidate for the October presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire, were released on Wednesday September 23, AFP learned from their relatives.

"Finally we are free and it is only temporary freedom," wrote deputy Loukimane Camara in an SMS to his wife, who transferred him to AFP.

The entourage of Guillaume Soro, relying on a document signed by the dean of the examining magistrates which mentions several other releases, evokes "a dozen releases" in total.

This is conditional freedom, in the sense that those released cannot come into contact with each other, nor participate in "meetings", and must refrain from "cyber activism".

About twenty relatives of Guillaume Soro, including five deputies, were arrested in Côte d'Ivoire at the end of December 2019 after the abortive return of the former Prime Minister to Abidjan.

Most are accused of "attempted insurrection".

Amnesty International then considered the prosecution of Guillaume Soro and his supporters "very suspicious", "the accusations seeming to be politically motivated".

The Constitutional Council rejected, on September 14, his candidacy for the presidential election (as well as 39 others of the 44 candidacies including that of former President Laurent Gbagbo) but validated that of outgoing President, Alassane Ouattara, for a controversial third term.

The opposition called for civil disobedience, accusing the Constitutional Council and the Independent Electoral Commission of being "subservient" to power.

"Calming measures"

A senior official in the ruling party recently told AFP that there would be "appeasement measures in the coming days" as tension mounts in the country.

These unexpected releases without public announcement by the authorities could be part of these "measures".

Long ally of President Ouattara, whom he helped bring to power during the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011, Guillaume Soro, who was his first Prime Minister, then the President of the National Assembly, then fell out with him, until the break in early 2019.

If he could compete, Guillaume Soro, currently in France, would be considered a serious challenger for the presidential election by political analysts.

The fear of deadly violence is strong in this West African country, ten years after the post-electoral crisis born of the 2010 presidential election which left 3,000 dead, after Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to acknowledge his electoral defeat facing Alassane Ouattara.

Violence, in the wake of the announcement of President Ouattara's candidacy, killed around 15 people in August.

Elected in 2010, re-elected in 2015, Alassane Ouattara, 78, announced in March that he was giving up running for a third term, before changing his mind in August, after the death of his designated dolphin, the Prime Minister, Amadou Gon Coulibaly.

The Constitution limits the number of presidential terms to two, but the Constitutional Council estimated that the entry into force of a new constitution in 2016 had reset the counters to zero, which the opposition fiercely contests.

With AFP

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