Ivory Coast: Presidential Elections Witness Rigid Conditions, Protests

Between the "Boycott" of the opposition and the call for "Civil disobedience" and clashes that left about thirty people dead, the Ivory Coast witnesses elections on Saturday, October 31, 2020, in an atmosphere of anxiety fueled by the candidacy of Hassan Ouattara for a controversial third term.

As happened in Guinea, where the re-election of President Alpha Conde for a third term witnessing a fervent opposition that resulted in the deaths of about twenty people, the opposition in Ivory Coast considers Ouattara's third presidential term "unconstitutional."

Two days before the election, former President Laurent Gbagbo, who has not spoken publicly since his arrest in 2011, asked to reach a  dialogue.

“What awaits us is a disaster,” he told TV5 in Belgium, where he awaits a possible appeal trial before the International Criminal Court, after his initial acquittal of crimes against humanity.

In an indication of the escalation of tension, the convoy of the Secretary-General of the Presidency of Ivory Coast, Patrick Ashe, one of the campaign managers of Al Hassan Ouattara, was attacked Thursday evening, without any injuries, according to a security source and a close associate of him that told AFP.

A security source told AFP that "the motorcade of Patrick Ashe was shot by unknown persons with automatic weapons near Agbau, where a meeting was held" less than 48 hours before the presidential elections.

The elections in the Ivory Coast, the largest producer of cocoa in the world, and once again became the economic engine of West Africa after ten years of strong growth, there are raising fears of a new crisis in the region shaken by continuous jihadist attacks in the Sahel region, as well as a coup in Mali and a protest movement in Nigeria.

Many fear a major crisis ten years after the post-election crisis resulting from the 2010 presidential election in which 3,000 people were killed after Laurent Gbagbo, the country's president from 2000 to 2010, refused to acknowledge his defeat to Alassane Ouattara.