Ivorian opposition has called for more protests on Saturday as a standoff with the government intensifies over a new draft constitution that is due to be voted on later this month.
Ivorian opposition calls for more protests on Saturday
President Alassane Ouattara says the new constitution will turn the page on a decade of political turmoil and civil war, but opposition leaders have called the document a step backward for democracy.
“We would like to inform our members and all our supporters, to be alert. To this effect, the opposition front calls for a mega rally on Saturday, October 22 from 9 AM in the morning,” said Danielle Boni Claverie, founding president of the opposition party Republican Union for Democracy.
The call comes just a day after violent protests rocked the capital, Abidjan on Thursday following a demonstration by the opposition against a referendum called on October 30 for a new draft constitution.
At the heart of the dispute is a clause in the draft that requires
presidential candidates to have parents who are both born in Ivory Coast.
The clause has been a sore point in a country that has long attracted immigrants from neighboring countries and was used by Ouattara’s opponents to bar him from elections, becoming a symbol of exclusion, particularly of northerners like him.
Nationality was at the heart of a crisis that began with a 1999 coup and included a 2002-2003 civil war that split Ivory Coast in two for eight years.