The Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) should finally emerge from the crisis. Everything was ready, Saturday, December 16, for the former Ivorian single party, which has become the main opposition force to President Alassane Ouattara, to choose a new leader during its 8th congress. A room at the Ivoire Hotel in Abidjan, the most prestigious establishment in the country, was reserved. The buses responsible for transporting hundreds of activists from all over the country had taken the road towards the economic capital. In recent days, even the rivalries between executives seemed more subdued.
But while there remained only two contenders to succeed Henri Konan Bédié, who died on August 1 – the mayor of Cocody, Jean-Marc Yacé, and the former general director of Crédit Suisse and great-nephew of former Ivorian President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Tidjane Thiam – the courts ordered “the suspension and postponement of the congress” a few hours before its opening, citing risks of “disturbing public order”.
A summary summons was sent to the PDCI headquarters on Friday at 3:30 p.m., according to the courts. Although the party leadership claims to have never received it, the rumor of a cancellation began to circulate in the evening, confirmed by a leak at 2 a.m., when the police received the order to deploy near the party headquarters and at the congress venue.
“Puppets.”
Nearly 6,300 delegates, according to the PDCI leadership, found themselves blocked by a security force of several hundred gendarmes around the Ivoire hotel and the PDCI house, located a few streets away. All morning, Jean-Marc Yacé and Tidjane Thiam increased calls for calm in front of the activists, who were finally sent home at the party’s expense. “We are not in a democratic country,” says a senior party official. What happened is the fault of some of us, internally, who were manipulated by those in power. »
These criticisms target two men: Christophe Blesson and Mathieu Ourah Afroumou, activists from the PDCI section of Yopougon. According to the court decision rendered by Aminata Touré, the president of the court of first instance of Abidjan, MM. Blesson and Afroumou reportedly filed a complaint pointing out that the list of congress participants published by the PDCI “does not contain the names of numerous congress participants who nevertheless meet all the statutory conditions to participate in the congress”, including the name of Mr. Blesson himself. .
“They were not up to date with their contributions, that’s why they were not on the list,” explains the party member cited above. But they’re just puppets, and we know who’s behind them. » No executive dares to pronounce the name of Maurice Kakou Guikahué. The latter’s campaign manager, Isak Adi, has continued to proclaim that he was “neither directly nor remotely involved in this situation.”
But PDCI social networks single out the vice-president of training. His name and photo, like those of the two complainants, are circulating accompanied by the image of an apple nibbled by a worm, or a portrait of the founder of the PDCI, former president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, displaying a distressed expression. .
The revenge of Maurice Guikahué?
Historical executive secretary of the party, Maurice Kakou Guikahué, 72, had applied for the presidency of the PDCI before his candidacy was invalidated by the electoral committee, according to him, due to the judicial review procedure which had targeted him since the violence that occurred during the post-electoral crisis of 2020. An assertion contested by the party leadership.
The control measure was lifted last week, already giving rise to accusations of collusion with the government. But Maurice Guikahué finally announced on Monday “to take note of the unjust elimination” of his candidacy, while ensuring that he would not take legal action against his party.
The fact remains that his name is indeed mentioned in the court decision rendered by Aminata Touré. While he “met all the conditions”, indicates the order in the part devoted to the presentation of the dispute, Maurice Guikahué “was denied the right to be a candidate on the grounds that he was placed under control judicial after his provisional release following non-criminal acts”.
Activists also did not fail to point out that the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Me Alphonse Van, was the associate of another PDCI lawyer, Me Emile Suy Bi, very close to Maurice Guikahué. Not to mention that Christophe Blesson had already protested against the ousting of Mr. Guikahué on December 7, and denounced, in the name of the PDCI congressmen of Yopougon, “a crime which aims to impose at the head of the party a personality chosen only by the management interim”, i.e. Tidjane Thiam.
Congress postponed to an indefinite date
In the entourage of the latter, who started as the arch-favorite for this election, we denounce “a completely disproportionate decision”. “Since when can two activists cancel an entire convention? », pretends to ask a close friend. Some even denounce a plot by the authorities to pile up obstacles in front of Tidjane Thiam, who has already announced his intention to be a candidate in the 2025 presidential election, in order to make him waste time in his strategy of conquest of power.
A political bureau was urgently convened to decide on the new date of the congress. The interim provided by Alphonse Cowppli-Bony should, according to party texts, end before February 2. But major political events will likely be postponed during the African Cup of Nations, which will take place from January 13 to February 11, 2024. Which postpones the holding of the extraordinary congress of the PDCI. Date on which Thierry Tanoh and Jean-Louis Billon, who were unable to submit their candidacy in November and had denounced in a joint declaration on December 12 the “opacity” of the ballot, will have reached 10 years of seniority in office policy necessary to claim the presidency of the party. And will be able to add two new camps to this war of succession.