In less than a week, the 255 Ivorian deputies will be called upon to elect the president of the National Assembly. The previous Amadou Soumahoro succumbed to a long illness on May 7. Adama Bictogo who took over the interim was appointed to wear the colors of the RHDP. For the opposition it is more complicated.
With our correspondent in Abidjan, Peter Pinto
If we rely on arithmetic, Adama Bictogo should be elected next Tuesday at the perch. His party the RHDP has an absolute majority. And if the youngest of the Assembly, the deputy Naya Jarvis Zamblé has for a time expressed the ambition to present herself, she quickly fell into line in the name of party discipline.
Adama Bictogo, if elected to the presidency of the Assembly, will also leave his position as executive secretary of the RHDP under a new unwritten rule that there is no president of institution in the executive board of the presidential party.
Things are more complicated in opposition. About ten days ago the PDCI deputy Jean-Michel Amankou publicly submitted his candidacy, but without the approval of his party. And Tuesday evening after the closing of the filing of files, the PDCI had still not officially invested in a candidate.
“ I will go to the end, the Ivorian people are watching us “, promises for his part Jean Michel Amankou who does not despair of finally obtaining the official investiture. But who is engaged in a standoff with the president of the PDCI group, Simon Doho, who asked him to withdraw.
At the PPA-CI, where we are committed to supporting the candidate presented by the PDCI, we are perplexed. ” If the PDCI does not have a candidate, we will take note of it. “Said a senior party official. The 18 pro-Gbagbo deputies could then abstain.