We will have to wait a little longer to find out whether Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara is a candidate for his own succession for a third five-year term.
His supporters gathered this Wednesday, July 29 at the Sofitel Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan-Cocody as part of a political council of the (ruling) RHDP chaired by Alassane Ouattara himself.
All the spokespersons of the various bodies of the Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la democratie et la paix (RHDP) urged him, often with tremors in his voice, to run for a third term of five years.
It must be said that this crucial meeting comes in a context where the candidate of the ruling party former Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly died suddenly on Wednesday July 08, 2020, just three months from an equally crucial presidential election.
Despite his willingness not to run for the October 2020 presidential election, RHDP president Alassane Ouattara may not have foreseen this current scenario.
Also, faced with the requests of his supporters, he whistled into the rally’s horn, indicating: “I would like to reassure you that I am with you and you know that I have never disappointed you. I want the RHDP to win on the evening of October 31, 2020 and I will come back to you very soon”.
Without frankly giving indications on his intentions to be a candidate or not, the Ivorian head of state was however crystal clear: “With a lot of attachment and affection to Amadou, to my son, I take act of the resolutions of the political council and of your request. I ask you to continue to have a thought for Amadou Gon Coulibaly and to give me time for meditation and recovery, before giving you an answer very soon.
(…) We must be proud of what we have done and that is why it must continue. I will get back to you very soon, and I will address the nation to say what is at stake for our country, why the Ivory Coast must continue like this today. That it must not be in hands that could tip the country into violence, disorder and the pursuit of self-interest.”
In the meantime, the Ivorian presidential election has already recorded four big official candidatures, those of Marcel Amon Tanoh (ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs), the former president of the National Assembly and former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro (GPS, opposition), the ex-president of the National Assembly Mamadou Koulibaly (Lider, opposition) and ex-president Henri Konan Bédié (PDCI, opposition).
