Yamoussoukro, IVORY COAST
Ivory
Coast President, Alassane Ouattara, has said he will not seek a third term in
the country’s October election, ending speculation that he would try to extend
his tenure in the world’s biggest cocoa producer.
Alassane Ouattara, who has been in power for 10 years, has for years toyed with the idea of running again despite his political rivals saying it was forbidden by the constitution |
Ouattara, 78, has for years
publicly toyed with the idea of running again even as his political rivals said
it was forbidden by the constitution.
His decision to cede power
after 10 years could cool tension in the West African country, which has a
history of bloody civil war.
“I have decided not to be
candidate in the October 31 presidential election and to transfer power to a
new generation,” he told lawmakers on Thursday.
“This is big, not just for
Côte d’Ivoire but the region, where all of a sudden we are witnessing a
resurgence of the ‘third term’ agenda,” said Idayat Hassan, Director of the
Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and Development.
“This. . . has prevented political stalemate,
a citizens’ uprising and an outbreak of violence.” The country’s neighbours and
partners would “breathe a sigh of relief” because the president may have headed
off unrest that could have pulled down the economies of Burkina Faso, Liberia
and Guinea, which depend on Ivory Coast, said W Gyude Moore, senior policy
fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development and former public
works minister for Liberia.
Tension has been rising in
recent months between Mr Ouattara and his two main rivals, former presidents
Henri Konan Bédié and Laurent Gbagbo. Ouattara defeated the latter in the 2010
election but Mr Gbagbo refused to concede, sparking a civil war in which 3,000
people were killed.
In 2018, Ouattara said a new
constitution had reset term limits, meaning he could run again.
Last year he said that while
he wanted to step aside in favour of younger leaders, he would run if Gbagbo,
who is 75, and Bédié, who is 85, ran.
Gbagbo was acquitted in
January of charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal
Court in The Hague for his actions during the civil war, an outcome widely seen
as opening the door for his return to Ivorian politics. He remains in Europe
pending the prosecutor’s appeal.
Ouattara is expected to back Prime
Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, a close ally, in the election. Coulibaly
previously served as one of his senior advisers but is not a high-profile
politician.
The president’s decision comes
as Alpha Condé, his counterpart in neighbouring Guinea, is expected to hold a
referendum in the coming weeks on constitutional changes that would allow him
to seek a third term, after postponing the vote last weekend.
The prospect of Condé running
for office again has sent thousands of Guineans out into the streets in recent
months. The referendum and legislative elections would take place within the
next 10 days, he said at the weekend. - Africa
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