Veteran Ivorian leader Alassane Ouattara has confirmed he will seek a fourth term as president, amid rising tensions over the exclusion of key opposition candidates ahead of the 25 October election.
Ouattara, 83, made the announcement in a televised speech on Tuesday evening. He has led Côte d'Ivoire since 2011 and is seen as the frontrunner to win.
"I am a candidate because the constitution of our country allows me to run for another term and my health permits it," he said. He added that Côte d'Ivoire, the world’s top cocoa producer, was "facing unprecedented security, economic, and monetary challenges, the management of which requires experience".
The ruling RHDP party had already nominated him, but Ouattara waited until this week to formally confirm his candidacy.
For the past 10 years, he has brought relative stability to a country in a region rocked by military coups. But critics say he has tightened his grip on power and overstayed his welcome.
The opposition argues a fourth term is unconstitutional.
Key opposition figures barred
Two of the main opposition parties have had their candidates blocked by the courts and say the process is unfair. They have launched a joint campaign demanding their reinstatement.
The government insists the judiciary is independent.
The African People's Party of Ivory Coast (PPACI), led by former president Laurent Gbagbo, and the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI), led by ex-banker Tidjane Thiam, have formed an alliance.
Gbagbo, along with his former ally Charles Ble Goude and former prime minister Guillaume Soro, has been removed from the electoral register because of criminal convictions.
Soro, who is living abroad, has said he is ready to return and "end his exile".
Thiam was barred from running over nationality issues.
"The announcement made today by Mr Ouattara constitutes a violation of our constitution and a new attack on democracy," said Thiam in a statement.
Pascal Affi N'Guessan, who will run against Ouattara for the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), called it "a candidacy as illegal as his third".
Ouattara’s third term also faced legal challenges. The law originally limited presidents to two terms, but a new constitution adopted in 2016 reset the counter.
The opposition boycotted the 2020 election. Ouattara won by a wide margin, but at least 85 people were killed in the unrest that followed.
From technocrat to president
Ouattara began his political career when Côte d'Ivoire’s first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, asked him to lead the country’s economic recovery during a crisis. As Houphouet-Boigny’s health failed, Ouattara took on more responsibilities.
After the president died in 1993, Ouattara briefly clashed with Henri Konan Bédié, then speaker of parliament. He later left for a top job at the International Monetary Fund.
Ouattara joined the Rally of the Republicans (RDR) party in 1995 and planned to run for president, but was barred by a law requiring both parents of a candidate to be Ivorian by birth, and for the candidate to have lived continuously in the country.
He was disqualified again in 2000.
A failed coup in 2002 sparked a civil war that split the country in two. Rebels held the largely Muslim north, where Ouattara had most of his support. The south, majority Christian, stayed under government control.
Ouattara left the country during the fighting but returned to run in the 2010 election, which he won.
Then-president Gbagbo refused to concede defeat, sparking another wave of violence. More than 3,000 people were killed before Ouattara finally took power in 2011.
Gbagbo was later acquitted of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but he still has a conviction in Côte d’Ivoire related to the post-election violence.
(with AFP)
