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...

The opposition gathered around the unlikely figure of the 86-year-old former president Henri Konan Bédié himself deposed in Côte d'Ivoire's first coup in 1999 could do no more than announce the creation on 2 November of a Conseil national de transition (CNT – Transitional National Council) which the director of the ruling Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix (RHDP) Adama Bictogo instantly dismissed as 'an act of defiance against the authorities'...

His main opponents Henri Konan Bédié and Pascal Affi N'Guessan – who boycotted the poll even though their names were on the ballot papers – are challenging the legitimacy of the president's mandate...

Affi and the Parti démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire candidate the former President Henri Konan Bédié have decided to boycott the poll...

There are also uneasy parallels with elections in 2000 held by junta leader Robert Guéï that excluded Ouattara and Henri Konan Bédié the President ousted the previous year...

And that certainly looks within reach unless former President Henri Konan Bédié can find the energy and popular touch to reach beyond his Baoulé electorate and seriously challenge Ouattara while other contenders try to peel disillusioned fringes off the RHDP electorate (AC Vol 61 No 13 An 80s classic)...

This time around Ouattara will face at least four main contenders: Former president Henri Konan Bédié who two years ago led his Parti démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire out of the RHDP camp; Pascal Affi N'Guessan for the Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI); Albert Mabri Toikeusse of the formerly government-aligned Union pour la démocratie et la paix en Côte d'Ivoire (UDPCI); Former foreign minister Marcel Amon-Tanoh...

Both offer the advantage of having originally come from Henri Konan Bédié's Parti Démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) and thus broadening the RDHP's electoral appeal beyond its northern heartland...