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Ivory Coast Ruling Party Banks on Ailing Premier Contesting Vote

Ivory Coast Ruling Party Banks on Ailing Premier Contesting Vote

(Bloomberg) --

Ivory Coast’s ruling party said Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly remains its presidential candidate in elections scheduled for October, despite his extended stay at a French medical facility.

The government evacuated Coulibaly to Paris earlier this month to receive medical care after undergoing a heart examination and he will remain in France for several weeks, the presidency said in a statement.

Coulibaly’s hospitalization came seven weeks after President Alassane Ouattara anointed the premier as his successor to lead the world’s top cocoa producer. The country is heading for the most tense elections since Ouattara became president in May 2011 following a violent standoff with former President Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to accept defeat in a vote five months earlier.

“Coulibaly remains the candidate until the end,” Adama Bictogo, executive director of the ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace said in an interview. “ There is no Plan B and there is no debate.”

Coulibaly, 61, had major heart surgery in Paris in 2012 and travels there regularly for checkups. Treatment he’s received during his latest visit includes the insertion of a stent, government spokesperson Sidi Toure told reporters days after he left for France.

Ouattara posted a clip of a video call he held with a beaming Coulibaly on his Twitter feed on Tuesday, a move aimed at reassuring the public the prime minister is on the mend. A longtime Ouattara loyalist, Coulibaly served as agriculture minister from 2002 to 2010 and as secretary general of the presidency from 2011 until his appointment to his current post in 2017.

Defense Minister Hamed Bakayoko is acting as prime minister in Coulibaly absence. No replacement was named for Coulibaly when he put himself in quarantine at the end of March after being exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

The prime minister may be resting and ensuring he is healthy enough to run in the election, but the decision to temporarily replace him signals that there are concerns he may drop out of the race, said Sylvain N’Guessan, an Abidjan-based political analyst.

Jeune Afrique reported Wednesday that upon his return to Ivory Coast, Coulibaly may be replaced by secretary general in the presidency Patrick Achi to enable Coulibaly to focus on his presidential campaign.

The coronavirus, which has been diagnosed in 1,857 people in the West African nation so far, could derail the election timetable. While the government expects infections to peak before the end of June and the vote to go ahead as planned on Oct. 31, a delay is likely if a slowdown doesn’t materialize and that could give the opposition more time to muster support, according to Eurasia Group.

The government’s insistence that the vote remains on schedule, “reflects Ouattara’s fears that an election delay could scupper a succession strategy he has carefully executed over the last two years,” the risk advisory group said.

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