Henri Konan Bédié

That's what Henri Konan Bédié – who was president from 1993 to 1999 – is doing in the elections set for October hoping to ally his supporters with those of other opposition figures unable to join the contest and challenge the government candidate Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly (AC Vol 61 No 6 Ouattara and son)...

With the focus on Soro and the personal dramas of 'AGC' the honorific acronym Gon Coulibaly has now been accorded by the media and Soro the former President Henri Konan Bédié 86 has slipped out of the limelight...

Within the Parti démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire- Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (PDCI-RDA) the likely nomination of former President Henri Konan Bédié at a convention on 12 June does not command universal support...

Opposition leader and former president Henri Konan Bédié accused the government of breaching its own rules against meetings of more than 50 by allowing a parliamentary congress to meet in the capital Yamoussoukro...

When former head of state Henri Konan Bédié pulled out of the RHDP alliance in mid-2018 Ouattara's best course of action became obscure; more so when the International Criminal Court acquitted Gbagbo of human rights crimes the following January (AC Vol 60 No 4 All bets are off)...

Those with long memories recall that Ouattara made similar promises to his former ally Henri Konan Bédié – if the story of the promise to Soro is true...

And Ouattara's former partner now rival Henri Konan Bédié was deposed in a coup 20 years ago...

By comparison former President Henri Konan Bédié's Parti démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) has only four MPs while the arm of the Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI) led by Pascal Affi N'Guessan has an even weaker presence in the chamber...

On the same day Ouattara's former partner in government and leader of the Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) Henri Konan Bédié lobbed a few choice insults at the new party from his home in Daoukro saying it consisted of fraudsters and falsely claimed the heritage of the country's founding father Félix Houphouët-Boigny which he said belongs by rights to the PDCI...

Some form of alliance between Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bédié seems plausible (AC Vol 59 No 17 Two suitors for the FPI)...

Hence his presence through his trusted envoy Afoussy Bamba-Lamine at a hastily convened extraordinary congress of the PDCI in Daoukro the home town of its leader Henri Konan Bédié...