Cote D’Ivoire election: Govt, opposition trade blames over bloody election campaign

AS Ivory Coast prepares for another round of election, both the government and opposition groups are trading blames over the blood-letting that has characterised the campaigns in the run up to the poll tomorrow.

President Alassane Ouattara, who is running for a contested third term, accused the opposition of sending supporters to their deaths by carrying out a campaign of civil disobedience.

Over 30 people have been killed in pre-election clashes since August, reviving fears Ivory Coast could slide back into the kind of violence that left 3,000 dead in a 2010-2011 crisis.

“They have to stop sending young people to their deaths. I don’t see why the opposition calls for civil disobedience, which leads to criminal acts,” Ouattara told AFP in an interview on Wednesday, October 28,2020.

“We know the opposition has been creating problems. We have proof and after the elections we will start proceedings over this. We will prosecute the actors and the sponsors… whatever the rank of the person,” he said.

As campaign for the October 31 election reach it’s feverish pitch, so much tension dominates the atmosphere, in the country as 78-year old Ouattara, faces off against two main opponents, former president Henri Konan Bedie and former prime minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan.

Meanwhile, the opposition camp has called for civil disobedience and an “active boycott” of the vote, though they have still not withdrawn their candidacies.
Elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2015, Ouattara refused a third term in office, before changing his mind in August.

Following the sudden death of his designated successor, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Ouattara, who had announced in March, that he would reject any suggestion of a third term in office since Ivorian law sets a two-term limit for president; decided to consider running for a third term.

However, despite opposition’s rejection of Ouattara’s third-term bid, a constitutional council ruled a reform in 2016 allowing Ouattara to reset the clock and run again.

Dozens of would-be candidates, among whom are Laurent Gbagbo and ex-rebel chief Guillaume Soro, who both played key roles in the 2010-11 crisis have been barred from running in the election.