Nothing is going well within the oldest party in Côte d’Ivoire. A few months before the municipal and regional elections, the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) is experiencing, by its own admission, a “hemorrhage”, with the massive departure of its executives to the ruling RHDP. Monday, March 27, at a press conference, PDCI spokesperson Soumaïla Bredoumy acknowledged a “period of strong turbulence”. “The party has experienced significant departures, he regretted, in particular executives whom the PDCI had trusted by entrusting them with first-class missions. But the turbulence is over and the transhumance is over, he swore, thanks to the “fine strategist” talents of Henri Konan Bédié, head of the oldest Ivorian political party since 1994.

At nearly 89 years old, “HKB” remains the tutelary figure of the PDCI and has still not pretended to name a successor. Besides his age, his health is not good. Witness his discomfort in October 2022 in the Saint-Paul du Plateau cathedral in Abidjan, for the mass celebrating the birth of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, which he has always claimed. “Heat stroke due to ambient humidity and poor ventilation”, then justified his team. In February, he sketched in Yamoussoukro a small dance step on “Magic in the air”, of the famous zouglou group Magic System, in front of all the cameras of the country during the presentation of the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny – Unesco prize for research. of peace, in order to show the “young” guard that he still has something under his feet. Because the election of the president of the party should be the issue of the next extraordinary congress, the seventh in its history and, for the time being, the irremovable Bédié remains the only candidate.

Facing the leader, heads bow, but there are whispers in the ranks. Why not become honorary president of the party, to give way to a more spirited candidate? “Beyond a few friends and relatives who have benefited from certain direct advantages, neither clan wants him to be a candidate in 2025”, breathes a PDCI observer. Even the dates of the congress, originally scheduled for December 2022 before being postponed, caused an internal dispute.

“Hold on until October”

Niamien N’Goran, close friend of Bédié and head of the organizing committee of the future meeting, had announced the date of March 25 to some PDCI executives. But the party’s chief executive secretary, Maurice Kakou Guikahué, immediately replied in a press release denouncing “the irregular form of this convocation of the congress”, and Henri Konan Bédié had to convene a crisis meeting in his stronghold of Daoukro on March 9. It was finally the date of March 30 that was chosen and, this time, revealed to the press, by Soumaïla Bredoumy.

Because, within the party, two clans oppose each other. On the one hand, the supporters of Maurice Kakou Guikahué, mostly alumni of the Movement of Students and Pupils of Côte d’Ivoire (MEECI), a student union close to the PDCI which disappeared in 1990. On the other, the faithful of the Bédié’s chief of staff, Bernard Ehouman, and Niamien N’Goran. In the ranks of the young people of the PDCI, they are nicknamed the “Camorracians”, after the name of the Neapolitan mafia, because several of them were allegedly involved in embezzlement. None have shown any desire to break up so far.

If the place of dolphin was played by seniority, it is to Maurice Kakou Guikahué that it should return. The cardiologist was already the personal doctor of the first president of Côte d’Ivoire, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, before becoming the right arm of “HKB”. He held the ministry of health in his government until the 1999 coup, despite accusations of embezzlement of European funds intended for hospitals. It was to him again that Bédié granted the post of executive secretary of the PDCI in 2013, which he has not let go since. “Originally, the position was to be rotating, but Mr. Guikahué remained the master on board without being worried, underlines Germain Kassi, deputy general coordinator of the Green Tide, an organization of young activists close to the party. I think its status is the undeclared issue of this extraordinary congress. In the Guikahué camp, the goal is to go from extraordinary congress to extraordinary congress so that there is no ordinary congress and that it can be maintained until October. »

Mr. Guikahué’s hegemony began to waver during the 2020 presidential debacle, where he was the campaign manager of Henri Konan Bédié. The active boycott strategy did not prevent the re-election of Alassane Ouattara. Once the political matrix of Côte d’Ivoire, the PDCI has never managed to regain power since 2010 and is now excluded from most governing bodies. However, it is Maurice Kakou Guikahué, rather than the revered patriarch, that a good part of the executives and activists blame this failure. Henri Konan Bédié himself ended up dropping him by agreeing to replace him as chairman of the parliamentary group with Simon Doho, whom Guikahué immediately took a dislike to.

“Hidden Battle”

Three new rivals then landed at the end of 2021, with a wave of nominations decided by “HKB” that elevate three party cadres to the dignity of vice president. Former oil minister Thierry Tanoh, in charge of the party’s finances, the mayor of the town of Agnibilékrou Roger Mandodja M’Bia and the former chief of staff of Henri Konan Bédié, Narcisse N’Dri Kouadio, arrested during the post-election unrest of November 2020 and imprisoned until August 2021. A major rival, but short-lived since he joined the RHDP, in power in January 2023. “For now, no one has openly dared stand up to Bédié on the upcoming congress, observes a party expert. It is a hidden battle, a battle of positioning. But the different currents do not give each other gifts. All strategies are possible: better embrace Bédié in order to stifle him, or defend him against all odds in order to better position oneself. »

Two other names come back on the lips when we talk about the renewal of the party. First there is the heir Jean-Louis Billon, son of Pierre Billon, the founder of the industrial group Société Immobilière et Financière de la Côte Africaine (SIFCA) and one of the country’s greatest fortunes. Minister of Commerce from 2012 to 2017, he has been trying for years to position himself in the order of succession to the PDCI. In mid-January, he had dared to declare on RFI his intention to be a presidential candidate in 2025. Worse, he had asked for the return of the age limit to 75 years for presidential candidates, which would have de facto ruled out his own leader. In other words, a crime of lèse-majesté.

And then there is Tidjane Thiam. A renowned economist, the man has his ancestry on his side, being the nephew of former President Houphouët-Boigny, therefore his successor in Baoulé matrilineal law, as well as a prestigious CV in the public service and the private sector. After graduating from Polytechnique in France, he served as minister of planning and development in the government of Henri Konan Bédié before pursuing a brilliant career in Europe and becoming the first black chairman of Crédit Suisse, which he straightened out in less than five years. But Tidjane Thiam has built his life outside Côte d’Ivoire for twenty years, and despite the ambitions attributed to him, has never expressed his intention of wanting to plunge into the political arena. Barring the surprise withdrawal of Henri Konan Bédié and the lack of a sufficiently solid and consensual alternative candidate, the extraordinary congress of March 30 promises to be a non-appearance.