Ivory Coast: Governor Robert Beugré Mambé appointed Prime Minister

The governor of the Abidjan district and former head of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), Robert Beugré Mambé, was named the new Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire on Monday and is expected to form a new government within the week, two years before the next presidential election.

President Alassane Ouattara asked the new Prime Minister to "propose a new government as soon as possible", announced the Secretary General of the Presidency, Abdourahmane Cissé, reading the decree appointing Mr. Mambé.

Robert Beugré Mambé, 71, is particularly known in Côte d'Ivoire for having been president of the CEI between 2005 and 2010, before the serious post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011. He had assumed this crucial function in a torn country and was dismissed from his position a few months before the presidential election.

This election led to a clash between supporters of Alassane Ouattara, the winner, and those of outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo, leaving more than 3,000 dead.

A Protestant preacher with greying hair and father of four children, Robert Beugré Mambé has been the governor of the Abidjan district since 2011, a position where he oversaw the major transformations of the Ivorian economic capital.

Elected deputy in 2018, he was promoted in 2022 within the Rassemblement des Houphouetistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix (RHDP), the ruling party, ahead of number 3 in this formation.

Born in Abiaté, near Dabou (south), Mr. Mambé embodies a face from the south of the country, like his predecessor Patrick Achi , in an RHDP which has a strong electoral base in the north. He is also a defector from the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI), a former single party that is now the main opposition party.

The next presidential election is scheduled for the end of 2025 in Ivory Coast and Alassane Ouattara has not yet indicated whether or not he intends to run for a fourth term. In February 2022, he said he had half a dozen names in mind for his possible succession.

The RHDP is the big favorite in this presidential election, especially after its overwhelming victory in the local elections in September where it won 60% of the municipalities and 80% of the regions.