The overheating situation in the run-up to the Ivorian presidential election on October 31, 2020 raises fears of the worst. The international community is mobilizing preventively at the bedside of the Ivory Coast.
To avoid a post-electoral crisis that would de facto lead to chaos in Côte d’Ivoire and destabilization of the sub-region, “preventive” diplomacy decided to take the situation in hand.
Also, the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN), partners of Côte d’Ivoire have decided to set up a ‘a joint mission.
This joint mission will be in Abidjan from this Sunday 04 October 2020 to try to ease the prevailing political atmosphere in the country. To this end, these three organizations have explained the meaning of their approach in a detailed and much better developed manner in this press release below.
“A joint ECOWAS – African Union – United Nations preventive diplomacy mission will stay from 04 to 06 October 2020 in Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire as part of the presidential election of October 31, 2020.
Led by Her Excellency Ms. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana and President of the Council of Ministers of ECOWAS, it is made up of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in West Africa and the Sahel, the Commissioners in charge of Political Affairs of ECOWAS and the African Union and the Executive Secretary of the Council of the Entente.
This mission is in line with the ECOWAS Protocol relating to the Mechanism for the prevention, management, settlement of conflicts, maintenance of peace and security and with its Additional Protocol on democracy and good governance.
This preventive diplomacy approach, along the same lines as that carried out by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in West Africa and the Sahel in September 2020, aims to consolidate and amplify the achievements. It also aims to make recommendations to the Ivorian authorities and political actors aimed at enabling an inclusive, transparent and credible election.
During its stay, the joint mission will meet with members of the government involved in the organization of the presidential election, the heads of the institutions responsible for its organization, as well as with the candidates selected to participate and leaders of political parties.
She also planned to meet members of civil society organizations and international NGOs working in the field of democracy and good governance as well as diplomats (African Group, permanent member countries of the United Nations Security Council, European Union, etc.).
