Presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire: KKB, a "big stone in Bédié's shoes"
Kouadio Konan Bertin, member of the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI), in Abidjan, in October 2013. AFP / Sia Kambou
Text by: Pierre Pinto Follow
9 min
PDCI dissident Kouadio Konan Bertin, known as “KKB”, is a candidate for the second time in the presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire.
In 2015, he obtained 3.88% of the votes cast.
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The fact that his name appears on the list of the four candidates selected for the next October ballot did not fail to irritate some of the failed candidates.
Kouadio Konan Bertin is a “
small candidate
” against the old pachyderms of Ivorian politics, Alassane Ouattara, Henri Konan Bédié and Pascal Affi N'Guessan, three adversaries supported by a well-oiled political machinery.
According to the Constitutional Council, the “KKB” team collected the signatures of at least 1% of those registered in 19 regions of Côte d'Ivoire out of a minimum of 17 required.
His
candidacy
is thus narrowly retained, but raises questions.
Shortly after this official announcement, Monday September 14, many shared their astonishment to see Kouadio Konan Bertin able to point for the final race while many candidates considered better able to collect the necessary sponsorships did not obtain them.
On RFI, political analyst Sylvain N'Guessan said he was "
surprised to see that Mr. Kouadio Konan Bertin was able to meet the conditions while Mr. Mamadou Koulibaly [LIDER party, Editor's note] is not a candidate
".
Between the lines, Alassane Ouattara is accused by a significant portion of the opposition and some observers of having carefully chosen this opponent, thanks to his supposed links with the president of the Constitutional Council, Mamadou Koné.
The accusation is serious, but the accusers explain it as follows: the candidacy of "
KKB risks weakening the PDCI of Henri Konan Bédié, main competitor of the outgoing president and thus promoting the affairs of the RHDP
".
“
For the PDCI, the validation of the candidacy of Kouadio Konan Bertin is not good news, because he will hunt on the lands of Bédié and could trample his votes.
[…] There is a big stone in Bédié's little shoes
, ”writes the political and satirical weekly
L'Éléphant déchaîné
.
To end the debate and brush aside these accusations, the "KKB" campaign team posted a lengthy video to detail the process of obtaining sponsorships.
Already described as a “
puppet
”
opponent
, a “
RHDP fad
”, the 52-year-old man is nevertheless described by his entourage as a fighter with a “
coherent
”
trajectory
.
Save the Bédié soldier
Son of a cocoa farmer, native of Lakota, Kouadio Konan Bertin emerged on the political scene in 1999 following General Guéï's coup d'état against President Henri Konan Bédié.
At the time, this graduate student, an activist at the PDCI, almost unknown and absent from the party's authorities, stood up against the military junta by demanding the return of Bédié, exiled in France.
"The
entire PDCI ruling class, whether these people were deputies, ministers, mayors, did not exist when there was the 1999 coup
", recalls Théodore Konimi, one of his closest. collaborators and faithful.
While the pundits of the PDCI want to discreetly bury the former President of the Republic by removing the head of the party from him, “KKB” is one of those who ardently oppose it.
Through his public positions in favor of the restoration of democracy and by succeeding in definitively saving the Bédié soldier who returned from exile in 2001, Kouadio Konan Bertin won an audience in the hearts of PDCI activists.
He also got closer to Henri Konan Bédié, whom he considered to be his political father and whom he chose to be a witness at his wedding.
At length, he tells the "
Sphinx of Daoukro
" how, in his student years, he opposed the omnipotence of Fesci - the Student Federation of Côte d'Ivoire -, considered too radical, and directed by Guillaume Soro and Charles Blé Goudé, among others, by creating CERAC, the “Reflection and Concrete Action Unit”, responsible for questioning the omnipresence of trade union organization on Ivorian campuses and fighting it politically.
"
CERAC members were violently attacked on campus,
" recounts Sylvain N'Guessan.
Having obtained the confidence and the ear of the president of the PDCI, KKB leads a rich career within the centrist party.
In 2003, at the age of 35, he became president of the Jeunes-PDCI, and obtained a seat on the political bureau.
In 2011, he entered the National Assembly, elected deputy for Port-Bouët (until 2016).
How can we imagine then that this man, a good soldier of the party and loyal among the faithful, became, in 2020, a thorn in the side of the PDCI, a rebellious repeated offenders?
"
He fought for the PDCI and has the impression of not having been rewarded
", summarizes Sylvain N'Guessan.
Treacherous or brave
?
It is at the dawn of summer 2020 that Kouadio Konan Bertin shows his intention to stand for the supreme office.
Problem: the indestructible leader of the party, Henri Konan Bédié, has already expressed his new presidential ambitions.
In the old single party, opposing the “Old” is tantamount to a declaration of war, especially since “KKB” no longer inspires confidence.
"
Is he here, isn't he
?"
With us, against us
?
It had been a while since we didn't really know
, ”says a party executive.
Courageous for some, undisciplined and disloyal for others, many are surprised to see him once again stand in the way of the “natural leader” of his political family.
"
The young wolves of the PDCI are daddy's sons who dare not oppose the leader, but he has no problem overturning the established order
," analyzes a politician who prefers to remain anonymous.
In 2013
already, seven years earlier, he had created a stir by wanting to run for the head of the party on the occasion of the ordinary congress against the same Henri Konan Bédié.
The PDCI statutes established an age limit and effectively prohibited HKB, aged 79 at the time, from being a candidate.
But thanks to a hacking of the internal regulations, the "
Sphinx of Daoukro
" had obtained the authorization to stand for the presidency of the party.
"
It was then that the first disagreements between Henri Konan Bédié and Kouadio Konan Bertin appeared,
" explains Theodore Konimi.
He retains a bitter taste from this experience.
“
KKB has always been opposed to those who twist their necks with the rules and norms that we set for ourselves, so from this point of view, there is a conflict of values which cannot allow two people who loved each other, can continue to love each other,
”he continues.
Daoukro's appeal rejected
For the ambitious forty-something, it is now clear: the party is trapped in a pattern that belongs to the past between excessive verticality, rigidity, "grand-frérisme" and absence of internal democracy.
A vision that no longer corresponds to the demands for renewal of the political class demanded by organizations from civil society.
Even within his political family, he will never take off his rebellious clothes: his master gradually becomes his adversary.
In 2014
, he rejected without hesitation “
Daoukro's call
”, a speech in which Henri Konan Bédié sealed his alliance with Alassane Ouattara with a view to creating the unified RHDP party.
The following year, against the party's advice, he launched into the presidential race, thus exposing the internal quarrels of the PDCI.
“
It is unacceptable that this party can decide to be absent from the presidential election.
Not having a candidate in 2015 means participating together in the signing of the death certificate for Félix Houphouët-Boigny's party,
”he was angry, five years ago, to justify his decision to go it. only.
Three years later, the alliance between the PDCI and the RDR exploded in full swing.
“
Today, Kouadio Konan Bertin is rubbing his hands, he said to himself that he was right all along
,” says a source.
“
Time has always proved him right.
The orientations were correct
”, adds his chief of staff, Théodore Konimi.
Internally prevented from running for the PDCI nomination last summer, KKB is running as an independent and wins a first battle by obtaining its place among the last challengers.
The outsider is participating for the second time in a presidential race and hopes to register his name definitively among the greats of the Ivorian political arena.
"
He was able to pull out of the game,
" comments a good connoisseur of political life, who goes so far as to compare him to Nicolas Sarkozy.
"
If everything goes as planned, that is to say the re-election of Alassane Ouattara, he will be called to take the head of a large ministry of state, in a government of openness
", predicted for his part a politician member of the RHDP.
If “KKB” has no real chance of victory and could even get a lower score than in 2015, his campaign will give him media space favorable to his own political career.
"
He is playing his professional career
, comments Sylvain N'Guessan,
because he is now convinced that he can not get anything from Bédié
".
►
To read also:
Presidential election in Ivory Coast: Alassane Ouattara, the last round
Presidential in Côte d'Ivoire: Henri Konan Bédié, the revenge of the "Sphinx of Daoukro"
Presidential in Ivory Coast: Pascal Affi N'Guessan, impossible freed
?
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