Ivory Coast’s ruling party on Monday said it had requested President Alassane Ouattara to stand in the upcoming presidential election for a third term after the sudden death of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, reported Reuters.
Coulibaly was Ouattara’s chosen successor and the RHDP party’s presidential candidate for the Oct. 31 ballot. In March, the Ivory Coast president announced he would not seek a third term in office and named Gon Coulibaly as his desired successor.
But, the 61-year-old Gon Coulibaly died earlier this month, just a few days after returning from two months of medical treatment in France. He became unwell during a weekly cabinet meeting and was taken to a hospital where he passed away on July 8.
Coulibaly previously had heart surgery in 2012 and had just returned to Ivory Coast from cardiac examinations in France. He was buried in the family tomb in his home town of Korhogo on Friday.
“A majority of our supporters have turned to President Alassane Ouattara,” the party’s executive director, Adama Bictogo, told RFI radio. “He is our solution, and I have explained this to him.”
Bictogo added that Ouattara’s candidacy would help avoid bitter succession battles.
“Why should we take the risk when we have this certainty,” he said. “If he (Ouattara) refuses, we then we’ll look into it and make a decision. For now, I have no other candidate in mind.”
Bictogo said Ouattara is expected to announce his decision in the next few days.
Ouattara has previously intimidated that instead of seeking another term he would want to hand over reigns to a new generation, although he also said he has the right to run again under a new constitution adopted in Ivory Coast in 2016.
Octogenarian ex-president Henri Konan Bedie of the PDCI party is currently the main candidate in the upcoming October election.
