Both aged 50 the two men appear to be positioning themselves as next generation successors or alternatives to Ouattara (80) Gbagbo (77) and former president Henri Konan Bédié (88)...

At this stage no one can rule out another contest pitting him against the other 'elephants' of Ivorian politics: former heads of state Henri Konan Bédié who will be 90 at the time of the next election and Laurent Gbagbo who will be 79 (AC Vol 63 No 1 Après nous le déluge...

This would allow Ouattara to close the door to any comeback for his two historic rivals Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bédié...

These three known as the 'elephants' are: Henri Konan Bédié who inherited the leadership of Houphouët-Boigny's Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) and succeeded him in power before being ousted in a 1999 coup; Laurent Gbagbo elected President in controversial 2000 polls following a short-lived period of junta rule; and current President Alassane Ouattara who came to power in 2011 following nine years of on-off civil war that saw the country split in two between north and south (AC Dispatches 23/7/21 The elephants talk reconciliation)...

Ex-President Laurent Gbagbo's Front populaire ivoirien (FPI) has splintered and its former leader helms a new party; President Alassane Ouattara's Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix (RHDP) is split over the succession; and Henri Konan Bédié's Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) is under strain as questions grow about the future of its veteran leader (AC Vol 62 No 13 Old foes re-enter the ring)...

PDCI: The old man's still got itThe only party still to keep it together is led by Côte d'Ivoire's oldest politician and arguably its least successful president Henri Konan Bédié...

His image also took a bad knock for allegedly flouting the constitution – exploiting a loophole in it at the least – by standing for a third term and both the pro-Gbagbo camp and the other 'elephant' of Ivorian politics Henri Konan Bédié 87 boycotted the polls in October (AC Vol 61 No 21 No contest poll for Ouattara)...

Astute political observers say that unlike former president Henri Konan Bédié's Parti démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) and former president Laurent Gbagbo's Front Populaire Ivoirien it is in fact only Ouattara's party – the Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix (RHDP) – that has sought to look beyond the figure of the founder-president and make attempts at rejuvenation...

Out of the 255 seats up for grabs in the Assemblée nationale the party of President Alassane Ouattara's predecessor Laurent Gbagbo garnered just eight seats on its own and a further 50 in an uneasy electoral alliance with Henri Konan Bédié's Parti Démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI AC Vol 61 No 13 An 80s classic)...

The ethnic violence was no longer confined to the west of country but had spread throughout the centre coastal areas and the east strongholds of former President – and electoral challenger –Henri Konan Bédié...