After a series of political failures since the presidential election in October last year, the votes within the PDCI are increasing to condemn the party’s strategy. While the historic political formation has just celebrated its 75th year of existence, its executive secretary and number 2 for the Maurice Kakou Guikahué party is one of the leaders crystallizing discontent, especially among the young people of the PDCI.
According to the activists, the scene is second to none. Last Thursday, while representatives of the PDCI’s youth department are in a meeting with Executive Secretary Maurice Kakou Guikahué, several people are investing in the house of the party based in Cocody, “armed with clubs and machetes” according to witnesses and say injured during the clashes. The perpetrators are believed to be supporters of party number 2, which Guikahué’s team denies.
The figure for the PDCI and close to the close president Henri Konan Bédié, has been much debated internally since the president’s failure and setback in the legislative election last month.
Failures as part of the PDCI’s youth attribute to the executive secretary, who is also accused of not caring about the fate of the militants, still in prison for participating in the slogan of civil disobedience, which was launched during the presidential campaign.
This violence illustrates the crisis that the former individual party is going through, which is currently being restructured. For Arthur Banga, historian and connoisseur of the PDCI, Guikahué’s strategy symbolizes “laziness within the party”.
The expert specifies that these divisions are only the preconditions for an inheritance war for Henri Konan Bédié, 86 years old, and whose number 2 would be the natural dolphin due to his place in the PDCI hierarchy.
