Some 35,000 members of the security forces were deployed from this Sunday to secure the operations of the presidential election of October 31 in Côte d'Ivoire, punctuated by deadly violence, AFP learned from police sources and administrative.
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These are "
14,000 police, 14,000 gendarmes and 7,000 soldiers
" who must "
secure the end of the presidential campaign and the polling stations
" on
polling
day, an operation called "
trumpeting the elephant
" (the animal totem of the Côte d'Ivoire), according to the police source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Or a deployment equivalent to that of the 2015 presidential election, secured by 34,000 security forces, including 6,000 peacekeepers from the UN mission which was then present in the country.
The police will have to watch this year on more than 22,000 polling stations, distributed in nearly 11,000 polling places across the country, according to the Independent Electoral Commission.
In power since 2010, President Alassane Ouattara is running for a controversial third term, deemed "
unconstitutional
" by the opposition, which called for "
civil disobedience
" and "
active boycott
" of the election.
Deadly incidents and clashes have erupted several times in the country, killing around 30 people since August.
Read also: The EU condemns the violence in Côte d'Ivoire and worries about the presidential election
The fear of an escalation of deadly electoral violence is strong in Côte d'Ivoire, ten years after the post-electoral crisis born of the 2010 presidential election which left 3,000 dead, after Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to recognize his electoral defeat in the face of to Alassane Ouattara.