BY JOYCE JOHNSON

In a broadcast aired just an hour ago by Radio France International, a French radio that is very popular in French-speaking African nations where citizens tune in on the FM dial, the executive director of the ruling party, Adama Bictogo, said the ruling party is asking President Alassane Ouattara to run again this year—for a third term.

The thinking is not new. It surfaced just one day after the passing of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly who was nominated in March by the president’s party, the Rally of the Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace, RHDP, to contest the 31 October election. The prime minister’s sudden death on July 8 of heart attack less than a weak after returning from a two-month medical treatment in France, alarmed the party, prompting its executive director, Adama Bictogo, to state on July 9 that the party does not exclude a possible candidacy of President Ouattara. In the statement that followed an extraordinary meeting of the party, Bictogo said.

“This is a situation caused by death. It’s a special circumstance, and it’s obvious we must review his [President Ouattara’s] thinking at that time. As a party, we’ll let him know where the party stands. The party is poised to analyze the situation, and if its our view that he [Ouattara] or another, the party will report to him. Everything is possible, including Ouattara’s candidacy.”

In the broadcast aired today by RFI, the RHDP’s executive director said: “Most of our supporters have turned to President Ouattara. He’s our solution, and I have told him that.”

During the many events held to honor the late prime minister before his burial Friday in his home town of Korhogo, in the northern region, talks of winning the upcoming 31 October came up again and again.

Durng a high-profile event held Thursday morning in the huge-capacity sports complex in Treichville, Abidjan which was attended by the head of state, his spouse, and the party’s leadership, with a large crowd numbering in the thousands watching outside, Anne Désirée Ouloto, the nation’s minister of Sanitation and Healthiness, lawmaker, founding member of the RHDP, and deputy executive director of the party responsible for external relations, hailed the former prime minister saying:“Amadou Gon Coulibaly, the lion of the Savanah, has stopped roaring by giving his last breath, at a time nobody could imagine nor foresee it, at the end of an epic that was, all the same, expected to be promising and glorious.”

But the skilled orator also galvanized the despite by saying, while referring to the late prime minister by his initials, AGC: “From this day on, we must all also be AGC, lions!” she said, then added:

“I am AGC! What about you? Are you AGC? Ask your neighbor if he is a true AGC. Are you all true AGC? So, if we are true AGC, we must win the election in October 2020 for ADO [President Ouattara’s initials.] Yes, win in October 2020 for ADO. Only at this cost will the tears of our Mama Fatoumata Gon Coulibaly [the late prime minister’s spouse] will dry. And only at this cost will the tears of our sister Assétou Gon, the children and the large Gon Coulibaly family dry. And only at this cost can we comfort our president ADO and his spouse Dominique Ouattara. With AGC, let’s win together the October 2020 election for the president.”

Typically, in Africa when a party’s spokesperson talks along these lines, it’s a done deal that the outgoing president will run.

Cote d’Ivoire’s constitution has a two, five-year term limit, and the outgoing president’s second term is due to end this coming 31 October. But the president feels the new constitution adopted four years ago resets the clock and allows him to run for two more terms if he so desires.

If the local political elite and international observers appeared taken aback by Ouattara’s announcement two years ago, many felt he had no real intention to run again. Which turned out to be true with the nomination of his prime minister and long-time assistant, Amadou Gon Coulibaly in March.