Ivory Coast ruling party split looms on 2020 presidential vote

After more than a decade as allies, two of Ivory Coast’s largest political parties face off in local elections on Saturday (October 13) after a recent split that is making Ivorians nervous ahead of a presidential poll in 2020.

The union that took place in 2005 between President Alassane Ouattara’s RDR and former President Henri Konan Bedie’s PDCI was meant to last and help heal the political wounds that led to civil war in 2003.

GEOFFROY JULIEN KOUAO, a political analyst says “The political situation is worrying in the sense that the implosion of the RHDP, gives rise to verbal slippages. And the antagonism between the allies of yesterday is so pronounced that there is cause for concern about the political future of the Cote d’Ivoire “

Now, both the RDR (Rassemblement des Republicains) and PDCI (Parti Democratique de la Cote d’Ivoire) are casting Saturday’s local elections as a test of strength heading into 2020.

Ouattara’s supporters have accused the PDCI of reverting to the tribal politics of the country’s bloody past. The PDCI says Ouattara’s government is drifting toward authoritarianism.