Alassane Ouattara’s long path to becoming Ivory Coast president included two elections in which he was disqualified from running and a brief but brutal 2010-11 civil war spurred by his predecessor’s refusal to leave office.<\/p>\n
Things have been easier since he took the top job in 2011, with landslide re-election wins in 2015 and 2020.<\/p>\n
The 83-year-old former international banker hopes to replicate the feat for a third and potentially final time when West Africa’s biggest cocoa producer goes to the polls on October 25.<\/p>\n
Ouattara’s supporters say his success at the ballot box reflects voter satisfaction with strong economic growth since he took office and a flurry of infrastructure projects, from new roads and interchanges to a more than 300-metre tower that dwarfs everything else in the city centre skyline.<\/p>\n
His critics say it has just as much to do with restrictions on democratic activities, including what Amnesty International criticised on Thursday as a “disproportionate” ban on election-related protests.<\/p>\n
The man who analysts say would be Ouattara’s biggest challenger, former Credit Suisse chief executive\u00a0Tidjane Thiam, has been excluded after a court found he had French nationality when he registered, which is not permitted under Ivorian law.<\/p>\n
Ouattara’s predecessor Laurent Gbagbo is barred because of a prior conviction.<\/p>\n
Those who are allowed to contest do not have the backing of the country’s major political parties, hindering their ability to mobilise on a large scale, analysts said.<\/p>\n
Instead, the four\u00a0opposition candidates\u00a0are heading up “makeshift coalitions” and are divided among themselves, said Cesar Flan Moquet, director of the Centre of Political Research of Abidjan, a think tank.<\/p>\n
“All this means that these candidates do not really have a chance,” he said.<\/p>\n
TURBULENT RISE TO THE TOP<\/strong><\/p>\n Born in Dimbokro in central Ivory Coast on January 1, 1942, Ouattara received a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, then rose to deputy director of the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n He later became prime minister under founding President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, whose death in 1993 ushered in a more toxic period in Ivorian politics.<\/p>\n New electoral rules, including one requiring candidates to have lived in Ivory Coast for the previous five years, prevented Ouattara from running in the 1995 election.<\/p>\n He was excluded again in 2020 on the grounds that one of his parents was from Burkina Faso. Gbagbo, who won that election, called Ouattara “a candidate for the foreigners”.<\/p>\n A 2002 rebellion against Gbagbo split the country in two, leaving its northern half in the hands of rebels, many of them from Ouattara’s Dioula ethnic group.<\/p>\n The war was largely a result of xenophobic policies by successive Ivorian governments against migrant farmers from Burkina Faso and Mali that also targeted northern Ivorians with cultural ties to them.<\/p>\n For the 2010 election, Ouattara formed a pact with former President Henri Konan Bedie which helped secure his victory in the runoff against Gbagbo.<\/p>\n Fighting that erupted after Gbagbo rejected his defeat killed around 3,000 people before Ouattara was sworn in in April 2011.<\/p>\n Ouattara coasted to re-election in 2015 and 2020, though the latter vote was marred by clashes between rival supporters that killed 85 people.<\/p>\n UNCERTAINTY OVER WHO COMES NEXT<\/strong><\/p>\n Tensions do not appear to be running as high as in 2020, when critics were more agitated over Ouattara’s argument that a new constitution approved in 2016 had reset his two-term limit.<\/p>\n The protest ban and the deployment of 44,000 security forces to prevent unrest will help stave off large-scale unrest, said West Africa political risk consultant Jessica Moody.<\/p>\n Ouattara is likely to spend a fourth term focused on economic targets, including making Ivory Coast a middle-income country by 2030, bringing a new Abidjan metro online and improving roads and electricity access.<\/p>\n There is also the question of who comes after him, which he tried to answer before the 2020 election by naming then-Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly as his successor.<\/p>\n Coulibaly died several months later, and Ouattara went back on his promise to hand power to a new generation.<\/p>\n Choosing a new successor will be a thorny process given divisions within the ruling party, but it is not impossible, Moody said.<\/p>\n “I don’t think he lacks the motivation to stand down,” she said. “He will be 88 by the next election.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alassane Ouattara’s long path to becoming Ivory Coast president included two elections in which he was disqualified from running and a brief but brutal 2010-11 civil war spurred by his predecessor’s refusal to leave office. Things have been easier since he took the top job in 2011, with landslide re-election wins in 2015 and 2020. 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