Ivory Coast: thousands protest against Ouattara's fourth term bid

Thousands of Ivorians took to the streets in Abidjan, the capital of the West African nation, to protest against the exclusion of opposition leaders from the upcoming presidential election.

Ivory Coast, the biggest economy of francophone West Africa, is due to hold a presidential vote in October. Earlier this year four main opposition figures, including former President Laurent Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam, have been barred from running by the electoral commission.

Protesters gathered Saturday morning in Yopougon, a densely populated suburb of the capital Abidjan, holding banners with messages such as: “Enough is enough!”, “No true democracy without true justice,” and “We are millions saying YES to Gbagbo and Thiam.” Gbagbo and Thiam joined forces earlier this year to challenge incumbent President Alassane Ouattara.

Last month, 83-year old Ouattara announced that he would seek a fourth term. Ouattara’s candidacy is contested after he changed the constitution in 2016 to remove presidential term limits.

“We don’t want a fourth term, and we want the electoral roll revised, that’s what we are asking for," said Sagesse Divine, an activist who participated in Saturday's march. "We want all candidates’ names included, and we want to go to the elections in peace, that’s all we want.”

An election in the shadow of tensions

There was no immediate comments from Ivorian authorities.

Thiam, president of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, won the party’s primary in an uncontested vote.

Seen as Ouattara's main rival, he has been barred from running on the grounds that he was still a French citizen at the time he declared his candidacy, even though he later renounced his French nationality. Ivorian law bans dual nationals from running for president.

Elections in Ivory Coast have usually been fraught with tension and violence. When Ouattara announced his bid for a third term, several people were killed in the election violence.

Ouattara is the latest among a growing number of leaders in West Africa who remain in power by changing constitutional term limits. Coup leaders in the region have used alleged corruption within democratic governments and electoral changes as pretexts to seize power, leading to a split in the regional bloc called the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS.

Ouattara justified his decision to run by saying that the Ivory Coast is facing unprecedented security, economic and monetary challenges that require experience to manage them effectively.