On Tuesday, July 25, 2023, the two chambers of the Ivorian parliament gathered in a congress in Abidjan to definitively adopt the bill to revise the Law No. 2016-886 of November 8, 2016, establishing the Constitution of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, as amended by Law No. 2020-348 of March 19, 2020, with a score of 88.53%.
Following a vote conducted by the president of the congress, Adama Bictogo, 301 parliamentarians voted in favor of adopting the bill to revise the Ivorian fundamental law (88.53%), 35 voted against (10.29%), and 04 abstained (1.18%). Prior to the vote, Laurent Gbagbo’s party, the African Peoples Party-Côte d’Ivoire (PPA-CI), instructed its parliamentary members to vote against the bill to revise the Ivorian constitution.
Deputy Doho Simon of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) asked the parliamentarians of Henri Konan Bédié’s party to vote in favor of adopting the bill to amend the fundamental law, with certain agreed-upon conditions. The ruling party, the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), which holds the majority in parliament, naturally instructed its deputies and senators to approve the bill to revise the constitution.
After the vote, Adama Bictogo, the President of the National Assembly, praised the parliamentary camaraderie among his peers, stating that these innovations bring our parliament in line with the requirements of a modern parliament. As a reminder, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara announced a constitutional amendment during his speech at the congress in Abidjan on April 25.
