Ivory Coast’s former prime minister and rebel chief Guillaume Soro on Wednesday called on the country’s army to join the opposition movement after President Alassane Ouattara won a controversial third term which opponents reject as illegal, reported Africa News.
According to the voting results released by the electoral commission, Ouattara won the election by a whopping 94.3% of the vote. But opposition leaders rejected the results and said they would establish a rival transitional government after boycotting the ballot.
“I ask you to disobey the illegal orders and join the National Council of Transition. To the defense and security forces, I ask you to look in the mirror, in soul and conscience, and act to stop the killings,” Soro said in a Facebook post.
“Turning now to our security and Defence forces … I’m asking you to disobey illegal orders and join the national transitional council,” he said. “We cannot, out of fear, allow a dictatorship in Ivory Coast by Alassane Ouattara.”
Soro, who was blocked from running in Ivory Coast’s presidential election, was unable to return to the country from France earlier this year when criminal charges were brought against him. His supporters said it was all politically motivated to derail his candidacy. He was later sentenced in April to 20 years in absentia on embezzling public funds and money laundering charges.
The 78-year-old Ouattara has been in power for nearly a decade. He initially said he would hand over the reins to the younger generation and not run again this year but he later changed his mind after his party’s candidate died suddenly in July. He claimed that a constitutional referendum passed in 2016 allow him to contest the election again.
It is feared that Ivory Coast might see post-election violence this year, similar to the one in which more than 3,000 people were killed following a disputed vote a decade ago.
