“I call for unity in the fight for electoral reform: unity of the left, unity of all the living forces of the nation. This process must start now. United, we will be stronger. I repeat: united, we are stronger,” Simone Gbagbo declared.
Simone Gbagbo, president of the ‘Mouvement des Generations Capables’ (MGC), an opposition party, stressed the “urgent need for the government to open frank and inclusive discussions with the opposition and the nation’s driving forces with a view to finding consensual solutions for fair, inclusive and transparent elections” before the
Ivorian presidential election in October 2025.
“I still say that the current electoral system poses many problems. It is not credible (…) the arbiter of elections is not sovereign,” she said, pointing to the need to reform the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) by removing the political parties from its bodies.
“We need an IEC that is independent of political parties,” she insisted, at this second edition of the ‘Fete des Libertes’, which brought together several partner political parties. Georges Ezaley, vice-president of the PDCI (opposition), represented the party’s president, Tidjane Thiam.
“The President of the PDCI has asked me to confirm that he intends to continue discussions with you so that we can work together. It is vital for Côte d’Ivoire to have a strong opposition… The PDCI supports the MGC in its position on electoral mapping,” he said, assuring you that dialogue with the MGC will be intensified in the
coming weeks.
Charles Ble Goude, President of Cojep, was present and declared that “I associate myself with this appeal. You at the front, we at the side, we are reassured because he who has the monkey for a friend, does not fear that his stick is stuck in the branches. We are with you.”
The FPI was represented by Joseph Adahé Yao, the RPP by Boussou N’Da, the MFA by Konet Adama, the GPS by Yao Kouman and the ‘Mouvement Engagement Citoyen de Côte d’Ivoire’, by its president Ebrin Yao Remi.
ICONE, the political party founded by the late Jean-Yves Dibopieu, also took part in the celebrations with a delegation led by Yves Mayobo. The third ‘Fete des Libertes’ will be held in Abidjan in 2025.
For the President of MGC, Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, the people of Côte d’Ivoire must rebuild harmony between themselves in order to restart the work of reconstruction, which involves reconciling the Ivorian nation.
AP/fss/abj/APA