Cote d’Ivoire: No Article Allows President Ouattara To Run For Third Term – Opposition Coalition

BY Fidelis Akahomen

As the Ivorian president Alassane Dramane Ouattara has decided to run for a presidential third term in office, and with the presidential election scheduled for October 31, 2020, the opposition coalition of cote d ‘ivoire has complained that there is no article in the ivorian constitution, that allows the president to run for a third term.

Presidential candidate for the election and president of the L’ALTERNATIVE-CI, Mr Seth Koko, who made this complaint on behalf of the coalition party during a press conference abuja, yesterday, said that Ouattara’s decision to for a third term is in flagrant violation of the Ivorian constitution,  which in its article 55, enshrines the presidential terms to two for any Ivorian political life.

“Pursuant to the rule of presidential term limits to two, president Alassane Dramane Ouattara, who was elected in 2015 for a second term, is no longer elegible for another term, which would be the third on,” he said.

In his addres, Koko said: “All the constituent elements for a major crisis linked to this election are already in place, and are inexorably leading Cote d’Ivoire towards a situation of conflict and violence highly more deadly than that of 2010-2011, in the sight of the Ivorian opulation and the international community.”

Koko alleged that: “To retain the unconstitutional candidacy of Mr Alassane Dramane Ouattara, the Constitutional Council, headed by a friend of president Ouattara, endorsed the arguments of the presidential camp, affirming that the new constitution adopted in 2016, consecrated the birth of a new republic, in which his two previous terms are not taken into account.” And in this regard, The president of the L’ ALTERNATIVE-CI said that the argument  devoid of any legal basis, and is even contrary to the letter and the spirit of the spirit of the constitution of November 8, 2016.

The coalition opposition parties therefore called on the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to postpone the election scheduled for October 31, 2020, in view of the many signs of a serious tragedy and crisis. The coalition also called for the dissolution of the electoral body, alleging that the current electoral body is biased and subservient to the ruling party.

Koko on behalf of the coalition opposition parties, warned that if president Ouattara goes on to contest and peradventure wins and swears himself into power, the opposition will not recognise him, and will make the country ungovernable for him.