Opposition protesters are dispersed in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, October 19, 2020. -

AFP

In Ivory Coast, one person died and several others were injured in Bonoua, during a demonstration of the Ivorian opposition, announced Monday Jean-Paul Améthier, the mayor of the city.

Protesters Respond to Opposition's Call for "Civil Disobedience" Before the October 31 Presidential

“There was one death, a young man named Morel and a dozen seriously injured,” he told AFP.

The mayor of this city located 60 km east of Abidjan, a member of the opposition, accuses the police of being responsible.

The demonstrators, mostly young, had blocked the road which connects Abidjan to Ghana to "respect the boycott slogan", continued the mayor.

They were dispersed by the police.

Boycott of the political campaign

"The situation returned to calm at the beginning of the afternoon", according to the mayor.

In Abidjan, clashes took place Monday morning between the police and striking students who demonstrate at the call of the powerful Fesci union, close to the opposition, to protest against school and university fees, noted an AFP journalist.

The students set a bus and two cars on fire in the Rivera 2 neighborhood.

The opposition called on October 15 its activists to boycott the electoral operations and the campaign, claiming not to be "concerned" by the "electoral process".

However, it has not yet formally withdrawn its candidates.

Opposition leaders, who have been casting doubt on a boycott of the presidential election for weeks, are calling for reform of the Constitutional Council and the Independent Electoral Commission, “subservient” to power according to them.

Counter to zero

They believe that President Alassane Ouattara does not have the right to run for a third term and challenge the rejection of the candidacies of heavyweights in Ivorian politics, in particular those of former President Laurent Gbagbo and the former rebel leader and ex-Prime Minister Guillaume Soro.

Elected in 2010, re-elected in 2015, Ouattara 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 runner-up, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly.

Ivorian law provides for a maximum of two terms, but the Constitutional Council estimated that with the new Constitution adopted in 2016, Alassane Ouattara's term counter was reset to zero.

The fear of a return of violence

About 15 people died in August in violence that arose in the wake of the announcement of his candidacy.

Two others died last weekend in intercommunal clashes linked to the political situation in Bongouanou (200 km north of Abidjan), stronghold of one of the opposition candidates, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, former Prime Minister by Laurent Gbagbo.

Fears of further violence are great, ten years after the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011, born of President Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to recognize his electoral defeat against Alassane Ouattara, which left 3,000 dead and which occurred after a decade of tensions.

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