President Alassane Ouattara submitted Monday August 24 his candidacy for the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) in Abidjan, calling for " peace " after the violence which has left at least eight dead since the announcement that he would run for a third controversial mandate.
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" I know how to count on all of my fellow citizens so that this election is appeased and that Ivorians can make their choice in peace, in peace, without violence ", he said on leaving the CEI, supervised by most members of the government. “ We will submit to the verdict of our fellow citizens. Citizens will remember our record which has been an exceptional record over the past 9 years (...). I have a vision of stability, security, peace and happiness for Ivorians, ”he concluded.
Elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2015, the head of state, 78, initially announced in March his intention not to stand for re-election on October 31 and to hand over to his prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly . But he died suddenly on July 8 from a heart attack.
Six dead, a hundred injured and 1,500 displaced
The announcement on August 6 that Alassane Ouattara would run for a third term sparked protests that degenerated into violence for three days, leaving six dead, a hundred injured and 1,500 displaced. This weekend, new violence, interethnic, in the wake of his inauguration by his party, killed at least two people in Divo (200 km north-west of Abidjan).
The Constitution, revised in 2016, limits presidential terms to two. Alassane Ouattara's supporters claim that the revision has reset the mandate counter to zero, his opponents deem a third candidacy unconstitutional. The fear of even more deadly violence, with the approach of the October 31 poll, is strong, ten years after the crisis born of the 2010 presidential election, which killed 3,000 and saw Alassane Ouattara come to power.