ABIDJAN, Ivory Wing (AP) — Ivory Wing President Alassane Ouattara says he has accepted the ruling party’s nomination and will trip for a third term in October.
Ouattara launched the decision Thursday evening on the eve of Ivory Wing’s 60th anniversary of independence from France.
The ruling party nominated Ouattara final week. Its outdated nominee, Prime Minister Amadou Coulibaly, died in July from a heart assault.
“I procure made up our minds to reply favorably to the requests of my fellow residents,” Ouattara acknowledged in a televised speech. “I am a candidate for the presidential election of Oct. 31.”
Ouattara had promised in March no longer to trip all all over again. On the opposite hand, on Thursday he acknowledged the loss of life of his top minister “leaves a void in the personnel that I had attach in position.”
Ouattara’s main challenger, opposition candidate Henri Konan Bedie, who used to be president from 1993 to 1999, has told France 24 that Ouattara’s candidacy would be “unlawful.”
Pascal Affi N’Guessan, the candidate for faded President Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Standard Entrance party, additionally expressed reservations about Ouattara’s candidacy, pronouncing his mandate ends in 2020, in accordance with the nation’s predominant law which limits presidential terms to 2.
Ouattara has argued that with changes made to the constitution in 2016, his outdated terms hold no longer depend toward the two-term restrict.
