Two members of the ruling party, RHDP, have been expelled for defying Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara by running as independent candidates in municipal elections in regions located in the northern part of Ivory Coast.
The Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) is currently implementing a crackdown campaign against independent candidates from within their own ranks. Dramane Cissé, Special Advisor of SNME and in charge of Solidarity and Monitoring of Associations and Communities, who is a candidate in Odienné, and Moustapha DIABY, who is the Delegate in charge of associative world and support movements in the RHDP-France External Delegation’s office, are the first official victims.
Ouattara Dramane, National Secretary in charge of Overseas Members (SNME), revealed this information to the public on August 8, 2023. “SNME decides that from this day on, (Tuesday, August 8, 2023), the functions of the aforementioned personalities within their respective capacities within the political leadership of RHDP abroad are terminated,” he declared.
Furthermore, he suggested that “there are no candidates who want to run independently of the party. So any individual who runs independently of the party is undisciplined. In our understanding, they are not even part of RHDP. Among them, there are those who go so far as to audaciously use the party’s logo and the image of the president of the Republic to claim that they are independent candidates of RHDP. You cannot be in the elevator and be seen walking down the street at the same time. Either you are from RJDP, a candidate presented by the party, or you are from RHDP, or you are not from RHDP,” he concluded.
