Ivory Coast to restructure electoral commission ahead polls

Ivory Coast's government says it has decided to favorably consider requests on the restructuring of the Independent Electoral Commission. 

The decision comes on the proposal of the ECOWAS Peace and Security Commission chaired by General Francis Béhanzin.

The government also expressed its support for a meeting between the President Alassane Ouattara and the President of the PDCI, Henri Konan Bédié, with a view to the participation of the opposition in the presidential election of 31 October 2020.

The information was made public in a statement read by the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, Sidiki Diakité, at the end of a working session chaired by Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 in Abidjan. A meeting that brought together the government, the ECOWAS Peace and Security Commission and opposition political parties. The PDCI and the FPI did not respond to the invitation.

According to Sidiki Diakité, the government decided to consider favorably the requests on the restructuring of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) made by the opposition after exchanges with this ECOWAS commission. These requests relate to "the integration of a fifth personality into the central commission of the IEC in the name of the opposition, the granting of a post of vice-president to the PDCI in the office of the central commission of the IEC and the recomposition of the local IECs".

The participants also deplored the violent demonstrations that have been recorded in recent weeks and which have resulted in loss of life, serious injuries and significant property damage.

In addition, the government called on the political parties to lift, without delay, the watchword of civil disobedience, to commit themselves definitively to the path of dialogue and to work for a peaceful presidential election on Saturday, October 31, 2020.

Hamed Bakayoko thanked ECOWAS for its "engagement with stakeholders to help move forward in the negotiations".

The ECOWAS delegation led a ministerial mission of preventive diplomacy to Côte d'Ivoire from 18 to 19 October.