Ivorian police on Thursday dispersed a protest staged by the opposition to denounce the withdrawal of former President Laurent Gbagbo from the provisional electoral list for 2020.
The protestors gathered a few yards from the headquarters of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) located in East Abidjan.
The protestors, mostly young people, who were trying to gather in front of the headquarters of the independent electoral institution, were prevented by an impressive array of Ivorian security forces resulting in clashes between the two camps. At the Carrefour de la Riviera II, another neighbourhood east of Abidjan, demonstrators were repelled by police.
According to eye witnesses to, injuries were recorded as some protestors were arrested, a unconfirmed report said. Other sources report the arrest of at least three people.
Ensemble pour la démocratie et la souveraineté (EDS), a political grouping under the Ivorian opposition that claims to have Laurent Gbagbo as its political referent, on Monday referred the matter to the Independent Electoral Commission for explanations on the withdrawal of Mr. Gbagbo from the provisional electoral list for 2020.
“After discussion, they say that it is not the CEI that is responsible. It seems that there are two major reasons for someone to be removed in this case. Either the person has died or lost his civil rights,” explained Georges Armand Ouégnin, the EDS president said at the end of a meeting with the president of the electoral commission, Coulibaly Kuibiert-Ibrahime.
However, Mr. Ouégnin had called on his supporters to calm down, announcing that he would use all legal avenues during the dispute over the electoral list to demonstrate that Mr. Gbagbo deserves to be on the 2020 electoral list. The dispute over the provisional electoral list for 2020 began last Wednesday and is expected to end next Friday.
LB/ls/lb/abj/APA