“Thithi President!”: The supporters are gathering for ban on the Ivorian Opposition Hope | New policies

Despite a strong downpour and slippery roads, supporters of the presidential candidate Tidjane Thiam spilled in the streets of Abidjan by thousands of Saturday to walk on the offices of the electoral commission of Côte d’Ivoire.

Sawdled with white and green colors of the main Democratic Party of the Opposition of Thiam of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), the demonstrators sang its nickname – “Thithi President!” – in a demonstration of support for a candidate now officially prohibited to vote. Pacards reading “There is no plan B!” stolen in the midst of protest songs.

“We strongly denounce the arbitrary and unjustified abolition of President Thiam, as well as other major opposition leaders,” one of the few people authorized by a large police barricade told Sylvestre to submit a complaint to the Commission, said his soaked compatriots. “It is unacceptable and dangerous for peace and democracy in our country,” he said.

The demonstrations highlight the growing tensions in the second economy of West Africa, before the general elections of October which many fear lead to violence in a country with still fresh memories of the civil war linked to the 2011 elections.

At stake is Côte d’Ivoire continuous stability In the midst of a regional security crisis, but a probable offer of the fourth mandate of the outgoing president Alassane Ouattara concerned numerous political voters and rivals, alongside what criticisms say they are the targeted prohibition of the government towards the opponents.

The strongest Challenger in Ouattara, Thiam, has been struck by a final list of candidates on June 4 After the electoral commission said that he was not eligible to present himself because he had automatically lost Ivorian citizenship when he took French citizenship in the 1980s.

Although Thiam abandoned his French nationality to regain his Ivorian in February, a court judged in May that he was not technically Ivorian when he registered in the electoral register in 2022.

The supporters of Thiam accuse Ouattara, who has led since 2011, of paving the way for a fourth term. The last elections in 2020 were boycotted by the opposition, which argued that Outtara had reached its mandate limits, giving it an easy victory. During the 2015 elections, Ouattara was a clear favorite.

Former President Laurent Gbagbo and his old right man Charles Ble Goude were also struck for 2011 civil war convictions. Former Minister of Prime Guillaume Soro, who was found guilty of fraud, was also removed.

Ouattara will suffer from illegitimacy if he runs without these four, Sylvain N’Guessan, professor of politics at the University of Bondoukou, told Al Jazeera.

“He will be considered a candidate who was to exclude all the other serious candidates to win. What relationship will she have such a president with the other parties, with the voters? ” He said.

A “new face” in turbulent politics

Many Ivorians, in particular young voters, consider the Thiam businessman as a breath of fresh air and a departure from the policy of division of the establishment which saw the power concentrate in the hands of a few.

At 62, he has two decades less than Ouattara and was linked to Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the first Ivorian Prime Minister. Thiam was the first Ivorian student to get a place in the prestigious Polytechnic School in Paris in 1982, from where he was launched in high -flying companies such as the McKinsey council giant. In 1994, he returned home to occupy a ministerial post which saw him launching several infrastructure projects. A military coup in 1999, however, shortened this career.

In 2015, he became the first African chief of Credit Bank Switzerland, but resigned in 2019 after a spy scandal: a colleague accused Thiam of having spied on him, although a court then erased him from the reprehensible act. In 2022, Thiam returned to Côte d’Ivoire and the PDCI festival, formerly.

Thiam’s party promises a return to economic development which has prospered under Houphouet-Boigny, which is credited with the “Ivorian miracle” or the rapid development which came after colonial domination.

Thiam has also promised to include everyone, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

“He presents himself as a new leader, a new face that could lead Côte d’Ivoire differently,” said N’Guessan, adding that young Ivorians were tired of faces like that of Ouattara and Gbagbo, who are associated with a turbulent policy.

Critics say that his international career means that he is out of contact locally, but Thiam claims that he is nevertheless loved. In an interview with the BBC in April, he accused the government of the target specifically with a law of the colonial era which, according to him, was rarely used. Thiam underlined the Ivorian footballers who hold two nationalities and play for French clubs and the Ivorian national team.

“I do not think that anyone who does not think it is not a case of government exploiting the legal system,” he said, referring to his nationality-based referral. “This government has been in power for 15 years. Does that deserve five others? For me, this is what should be at the center of the presidential campaign, not my passport,” said Thiam at the time.

Al Jazeera contacted the Ivorian government to comment but did not hear say at the time of publication.

Far from identity policy

One day after the supporters of Thiam gathered in Abidjan, the Rally of Ouattara of the members of the Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) also joined Yopougon, the most populous suburbs of Abidjan.

Banners reading “In Yopougon, our champion is a teenager”, a reference to the nickname of the president, was extended to a stage where the senior members of the party praised Ouattara. The rally prepared the field for the great party congress on June 21 and 22, where Ouattara should officially announce its candidacy.

“There is only one road – the road to President Alassane Ouattara,” former Prime Minister Patrick Achi told the gathered crowd.

Ouattara, 83, would be half Burkinabe. He was the target of the inflammatory identity policy for years, his rivals questioning his “ivorite” and applying laws that disqualified him to run. When he finally won elections in 2011, Gbagbo refused to hand over power, which led to a civil war that killed it 3,000 people.

Ouattara has since modified the Ivorian Constitution to allow the presidential candidates at least one Ivorian parent in a 2016 referendum. He fed the country on the edge in a flourishing economy, obvious in the average annual growth of 7% recorded in the last decade.

Then in 2020, Outtara ran and won elections. The opposition criticisms and boycott declared that his candidacy for the third mandate was unconstitutional While Outtara argued that her mandate was reset by the new Constitution. Violence has been reported in certain regions.

N’Guessan said Ivorians are not appearing for the immense suffering of 2011 and warned that the revival of identity policy by preventing Thiam from running once again is “dangerous”.

“We have to learn the lessons to approach the question of nationality with a little more perspective,” he said. “The same words produce the same effects, the same ailments.”