Breaking News Report from DNT Correspondent Julius Ouya
Ivorians hit the street today to protest at the offices of the Electoral Commission against President Allassane Outtarra’s intention to run for president after already serving the constitutionally allowed two terms.
While Outtarra has yet to formally declare his intention to run for a third term, the opposition received a tip that he intended to use his planned address to the nation this evening at 8pm on the even of the former French colony’s Independence tomorrow to make the announcement.
Indeed, the stage has been building up for some months now for Outtarra to run for a third term.
His handpicked successor Prime Minister Gon Cuilibaly, a fellow northerner, died under mysterious circumstances two months ago following his collapse at a cabinet meeting and after treatment in France.
Experts expected that the next person in line within the RDR party would be Patrick Ichie who was Vice President at the time. But Ichie, a southerner, resigned when it became obvious to him that he had been placed at that position not to advance to the presidency but to serve as a window dressing to win southern votes. Outtarra refused to support his candidacy for president within the party.
The next official whom many expected to be considered for the successor status is cabinet minister Ahmed Bakayoko. However, although a fellow northerner, his flashy lifestyle and relative youthfulness was a source of discomfort to Outtarra according to some in his inner circle.
Sensing a leadership vacuum after an Outtarra exit, and a potential loss of power to the opposition party in October election, the leadership of the RDR party proposed to Outtarra to run for another term with the excuse that the 2016 constitution essentially nullified his first term and that this would be his second and final term.
Outtarra asked for time while he thinks about the proposal, but an Ivorian official who spoke to DT on condition of anonymity indicated that Outtarra would have formally announced his candidacy this evening in his pre-independence address to the nation.
On this tip off, the opposition leaked the information to the public and the citizens hit the street. The police was dispatched and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd that refused to back down.
Outtarra is largely seen in Cote d’Ivoire to be a puppet of French president Emmanuel Macron, and would not provid the needed sovereign leadership that Ivorians need today in light of the convection of the citizenry to rid the country completely from French influence.
With Mali in political turmoil, Outtarra’s insistence on forcing in a third term in Cote d’Ivoire could be a recipe for disaster that can potentially reintroduce political instability in west Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.