ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast
At least four people have been killed in clashes in Ivory
Coast as hundreds have taken to the streets following President Alassane
Ouattara's decision to run for a third term this October, sources said on
Thursday.
Police arrested a man in the district of Yopougon during
protests
At least three people were killed
on Wednesday in the central town of Daoukro in clashes between Ouattara
supporters and backers of rival candidate Henri Konan Bedie, a security source
and witnesses said.
On Thursday, an 18-year-old died
in the south-eastern town of Bonoua, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the economic
hub Abidjan in violence between demonstrators and security forces, said local
mayor Jean-Paul Amethier.
"The
police station in Bonoua has been ransacked by angry demonstrators, and
the police chief and officers have taken refuge in the courtyard," local
resident Herve Niamkey said.
In Abidjan, scattered groups of
demonstrators built barricades and burnt tyres in response to a call from the
opposition and civil society groups, AFP journalists saw.
"His candidacy is against
the constitution -- we don't want a third term," said protester Herve Seka
in Anono district.
In the district of Yopougon,
police fired teargas and chased protesters down narrow streets.
Several dozen protesters gathered
in Port Bouet, a seaside area of Abidjan, while a heavy deployment of riot
police maintained order in the upscale district of Cocody, where many
politicians live, including Ouattara.
The government announced a ban on
protests late on Wednesday in a communique read on state television.
Despite the violence, Ouattara's Houphouetist Rally for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party announced that he would be formally nominated as its candidate at a big rally in Abidjan on August 22.
A party stalwart, Adama Bictogo,
added that the party would demand that the government be held to account for
the deaths in Bonoua.
Ouattara, 78, announced a week
ago that he would contest the October 31 presidential elections, a move that
came after his anointed successor Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly died of a
heart attack.
The announcement sparked fury
among Ouattara's critics, as he has already served two terms and can only
contest a third by arguing that a constitutional change entitles him to reset
the clock.
The vote is taking place in a
country still scarred by a low-level civil war that erupted in 2011 when former
strongman Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara after losing
elections.
The ensuing unrest claimed some
3,000 lives and split the country along north-south lines.
Daoukro is a stronghold of
supporters of Bedie, an 86-year-old former president who last month was
endorsed by the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast (PDCI) as its candidate for
the election and has called Ouattara's candidacy "illegal".
Another candidate is former
foreign minister Marcel Amon-Tanoh, 68, who does not yet have the backing of a
party.
Gbagbo's party, the Ivorian
Popular Front (FPI), has yet to name a candidate. Gbagbo was cleared of
crimes against humanity last year by the International Criminal Court, although
prosecutors are appealing the ruling.
Former rebel chief and ex-premier
Guillaume Soro, 47, has said he will contest the vote, but he lives in
self-imposed exile in France.
Soro has been sentenced in absentia to a 20-year jail term in Ivory Coast on charges of attempted insurrection.
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