On Monday, Côte d’Ivoire’s Constitutional Council approved President Alassane Ouattara’s controversial bid to run for a third term in the country’s upcoming October 31 election. The country’s top court also narrowed the eligible presidential candidates to four, excluding all candidates convicted of a crime, including former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and former President Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo and Soro, who have been convicted of war crimes and embezzling $2 million of public funds, respectively, and have sought political refuge in Europe. The International Criminal Court has conditionally freed Gbagbo, who is awaiting the verdict of the prosecution’s appeal, but Côte d’Ivoire does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.
The court’s decision has been met with criticism from Ouattara’s rivals. More specifically, Soro rejected the court’s ban on his candidacy, stating, “My candidacy is firm, unchangeable and irrevocable.” Countries in the region worry that the controversial vote might undermine the stability of francophone West Africa’s largest economy, which weathered a civil war just 10 years ago. Violent protests in response to Ouattara’s candidacy have already resulted in the deaths of 15 people.
Meanwhile, Mali’s June 5 Movement (M5-RFP), the group opposing Mali’s previous regime under the now-deposed Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, rejected the military government’s charter proposing an 18-month transition government to be led by either a military or a civilian government. The M5-RFP has instead pushed for a civilian to head the transitional government and has accused the military government of manipulating discourse through intimidation and filtering who could participate in drafting the charter. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has already closed borders with and halted transfers to Mali, threatened to introduce additional sanctions if the military government has not designated a civilian leader to oversee a one-year transition period by next Tuesday. The international community—especially ECOWAS and countries like France and the United States—are eager to resolve the crisis as they are worried that a long transition will undo progress against armed groups in the Sahel region.
Source: Brookings.Edu