An Ivory Coast opposition party on Wednesday called a protest for November 8, denouncing “massacres” during Saturday’s presidential vote which saw Alassane Ouattara win a fourth term by a landslide.
Ouattara’s re-election with nearly 90 per cent of the vote came after a campaign marked by heightened tensions in which his main rivals were prevented from challenging the 83-year-old leader.
Some two per cent of polling stations reported disturbances during Saturday’s ballot, while others saw eruptions of violence, notably in the centre-west of the West African nation.
Three people were killed in Nahio on polling day in clashes between voters and critics boycotting the polls, according to the public prosecutor.
The African People’s Party — Ivory Coast (PPA-CI) of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo — a bitter Ouattara rival who was barred from running by the courts — has accused the authorities of “violent repression” and gave a toll of 23 people dead during October.
Repeating its opposition to what the party deems to be Ouattara’s unconstitutional fourth mandate, the PPA-CI Wednesday, called for a “large peaceful march on November 8 to protest against the massacres of populations and demand the release of all political prisoners”.
In mid-October, authorities banned rallies by parties not taking part in the presidential vote for a period of two months, citing the risk of breaches of the peace.
Several hundred people have been arrested and dozens condemned to three years in prison for having taken part in banned marches.
Around 20 members of either the PPA-CI or the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast (PDCI), the country’s largest opposition party, were summoned by the police on Tuesday for an unknown reason.
On Wednesday, the PPA-CI’s Secretary-General, Jean-Gervais Tcheide, said he believed that those summonses had been “suspended”, a fact confirmed by the Ivorian police.
“These maneuvers aim to prevent deputies from running as candidates in the upcoming legislative elections,” Tcheide told the press.
That ballot is scheduled for December 27.
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