Hamed Bakayoko

Missing out was not just Bictogo but also Cissé Bacongo Hamed Bakayoko Amadou Soumahoro and party veteran Gilbert Koné Kafana the mayor of Abidjan's politically turbulent Yopougon suburb...

Hamed Bakayoko stays on as Interior and Security Minister and is still one of the favourites for Ouattara's job; Adama Koné keeps his Economy and Finance portfolio; Sansan Kambilé remains at Justice while Jean-Claude Brou stays at Mines and Industry and Bruno Nagbané Koné at Post Telecommunications and Information Technology and is also government spokesperson...

Gon Coulibaly Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko ('Hambak') Ouattara's preferred successor and Soro are embroiled in a struggle for the controls of the RDR...

They include Gon Coulibaly (Minister of State Secretary General to the Presidency) Hamed Bakayoko (Minister of Internal Affairs and Security and still considered Ouattara's preferred successor) and the omnipresent Soumahoro...

All indications are that this will be Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko rising star in the RDR and a Freemason who seven months ago became Grand Master of the Grande Loge de Côte d'Ivoire a position from which he could wield considerable influence...

He sent for his Interior Minister and intended successor Hamed Bakayoko while attending this month's United Nations COP21 Climate Change Conference in France...

The main protagonists will be Guillaume Soro current Speaker of the National Assembly and Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko...

Yet Soro's biggest fight is with Hamed Bakayoko...

The RDR is united behind him and appears to be content to see the Internal Affairs and Security Minister and rising political star Hamed Bakayoko pushed to the fore...

The fastest rising star of them all is Internal Affairs and Security Minister Hamed Bakayoko who is close to Dominique Claudine Ouattara...