A five-minute video ad furnished for broadcast by Bédié’s democratic party, PDCI, which included short allocutions of late President Felix Houphouet Boigny, was reedited by the National Council of Audiovisual Communication, CNCA - a regulatory body of the audiovisual sector in Côte d'Ivoire, which particularly screens campaign items deposited for broadcast by the 14 aspirants.

A source from PDCI secretariat in Abidjan, who chose to be anonymous because he was not authorised to speak for the party, told AfricaNews that the TV/CNCA’s decision to cut out Houphouet’s image and message was biased because nothing inside was provocative and inciting.

“They are just unfair and biased. It’s another strategy to hamper another strong candidate,” he said. “They know that a strong admiration for Houphouet still lingers on across the country, so using his image would pull more voters in, to the disfavour of their candidate,” he said, in reference to ruling party FPI’s candidate President Laurent Gbagbo, often accused by the opposition of monopolising the only TV channel in the country.

But an official from the CNCA told AfricaNews that the body’s decision was far from being biased. He said all candidates were provided with rules and regulations concerning items to be broadcast on TV and radio during the election, and when “a campaign material is not conformed to laid down rules it is either reedited or simply rejected.”

Campaigns

The campaigns entered the 11th day on Wednesday, with less than three days to D Day.

Despite Bédie’s boycotting the TV programme, he held a rally earlier in the day at the 34,000-seater Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in central Abidjan, which was jack-packed with militants wearing white and green T-shirts – the party’s colours.

Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo was outside Abidjan on Wednesday. He was shown on TV addressing an immense crowd of sympathisers at an open-air rally. He called on Ivorians to elect him if they need “jobs and stability.”

Other principal candidate Alassane Ouatarra popularly known as ADO continues flying in his helicopter and private jet - painted in his party’s orange and white colours - from one rally to the other in the hinterland. He says he has “solutions to Ivorians’ job and health problems.”

The 11 other candidates are still in the battle to convince 5.7 million voters to their cause within the next 72 hours.

The independent electoral commission, CEI, said on Wednesday that most of the voter’s cards have been distributed and ballot boxes have been almost deployed to the 22,000 voting centres across the country.

Peaceful atmosphere

Ivory Coast chief of army staff Gen. Philippe Mangou on Wednesday saluted the ongoing peaceful and mature campaigns across the country. He called on Ivorians to desist from any act of disorderliness before, during and after the polls.