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.
Cote d” Ivoire, 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, were barred from running by the electoral commission.
Protesters gathered last 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 last Saturday's march. "We want all candidates’ names included and we want to go to the elections in peace, that’s all we want.”
There was no immediate comments from Ivorian authorities.
Thiam, the president of the Democratic Party of Cote d’ Ivoire, 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.
