Since the meeting between Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara and the leader of the united opposition, Henri Konan Bédié, on November 11, the two camps have been relatively quiet. Although tensions have fallen one step in the country, the election crisis, which has caused the deaths of at least 85 people, is far from resolved.
On Friday, November 20, Henri Konan Bédié, chairman of the PDCI, officially announced that he would “suspend” this dialogue as long as the opposition cadres, still in prison, were not released. “I interrupted this dialogue until our brothers were released,” he explained.
Since the November 11 meeting between Ouattara and Bédié, requests for release, “non-negotiable conditions” according to the opposition, have remained a dead letter. But the chairman of the PDCI wants to be sure: “I think, he said, that in a few days these various releases will be made so that we can resume dialogue.”
In recent days, Henri Konan Bédié has received one by one the formations that make up the opposition coalition: EDS, FPI-Legal or UDPCI. He was able to organize a joint meeting for all these groups next week. On the other hand, some information was filtered about the content of the aborted discussions between the political opponents. “Ministerial forces are not a priority for us,” the UDPCI secretary general assures a possible government of national unity. Evelyne Tali believes that the discussions are still the abolition of the election and the dissolution of the CEI and the Constitutional Council. Unthinkable for the forces that exist.
Another request from opponents, organizing an extensive dialogue with all opposition leaders: Laurent Ggabo, Guillaume Soroou and Charles Blé Goudé.
