The Political Bureau of the Union for Democracy and Peace in Côte d’Ivoire (UDPCI) announced that its president, Abdallah Albert Mabri Toikeusse, will be the party’s candidate for the presidential election, in a statement.
Mr. Toikeusse left the government on May 13. In March, he opposed the appointment of former Prime Minister Amadou Gon as a candidate for the Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la democratie et la paix (RHDP, ruling party) to run for the succession of President Alassane Ouattara.
The political game was turned upside down in Ivory Coast by the unexpected death in early July of the ruling party’s candidate, Amadou Gon Coulibaly.
In addition to this candidacy, Minister Mabri Toikeuse has committed the Union for Democracy and Peace in Ivory Coast (UDPCI) his party has an “outright withdrawal from the RHDP political coalition as of this day and invites its activists to cease all participation in RHDP activities”. The RHDP is the ruling party of President Alassane Ouattara.
Minister Mabri also addressed the issue of “RHDP executives from the UDPCI who have deliberately chosen to remain in this coalition”, indicating that “their fates are known”.
Dr Abdallah Albert Mabri Toikeusse explained that the withdrawal of his party from the RHDP (a ruling coalition of which he is one of the founders) is justified by the fact that “there is a lot of contempt, sufficiency and forgetting”. Among the militants of Alassane Ouattara’s party. “We believe our place is no longer there.”
Stating: “I think our chances are very high. The 2010 data is not the 2020 data and they will verify that very soon. We are candidates because we think that the Ivorians will choose us”.
The new presidential candidate also made an appointment with Ivorians to present them the main lines of his government program.
With his designation, the number of contenders for the presidential post now increases to six: Henri Konan Bédié (PDCI RDA), Pascal Affi N’Guessan (FPI), Guillaume Soro (GPS), Mamadou Koulibaly (Lider), Marcel Amon Tanoh (without label for now), while waiting for the candidate of the ruling RHDP party of Alassane Ouattara who has not yet been appointed.
Reference: https://www.bbc.com/afrique/region-53632834
