Ever since the untimely deaths of president Alassane Ouattara's anointed successors Amadou Gon Coulibaly and Hamed Bakayoko (AC Vol 61 No 15 Quest for a new dauphin & Vol 62 No 6 Many shoes to fill) the RHDP has kicked the succession can down the road which has fuelled wild speculation and increased intra-party tensions...

The death in 2023 of one former rival Henri Konan Bédié and the uncertain electoral appeal and civil status of his other key counterpart Laurent Gbagbo might persuade him to hand over to a younger generation something he had said was necessary before the 2020 election before changing his mind and running again after the sudden death of his planned successor Amadou Gon Coulibaly...

But two successors-in-waiting Amadou Gon Coulibaly and then Hamed Bakayoko died within less than a year of each other so the Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix (RHDP) leadership is working on the assumption that only Ouattara can keep the party together...

He reversed his retirement plan in 2020 to stand for a third term after the sudden death of his planned successor Amadou Gon Coulibaly...

The President's omnipresent younger brother Téné Birahima Ouattara aka 'photocopie' was widely rumoured to be anointed his brother's dauphin after the deaths of Ouattara's first two choices Amadou Gon Coulibaly and Hamed Bakayoko but it was not to be (AC Vol 62 No 6 Many shoes to fill)...

Similarly the Ivorian government spokesman Amadou Coulibaly told local media on 7 July that the government had made no decision regarding Keïta...

However having first taken on the mantle of a lofty figure far above the fray the sudden death of his preferred successor Amadou Gon Coulibaly plunged him back into the political hurly burly (AC Vol 61 No 15 Quest for a new dauphin)...

President Alassane Ouattara – there with his wife Dominique and Bakayoko's widow and daughter – was visibly affected by his close ally's death which came less than a year after the death of Bakayoko's predecessor as Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly (AC Vol 61 No 15 Quest for a new dauphin)...

Many Ivorians are angered by the manner in which the president has pushed the legal limits – on the grounds of a new constitution introduced in 2016 – to restart the two-term limit clock and stand for a third successive mandate after the sudden death in July of his chosen successor candidate Amadou Gon Coulibaly (AC Vol 61 No 15 Quest for a new dauphin)...

President Emmanuel Macron had welcomed Ouattara to the Elysée for lunch on 4 September but his officials publicly stated that France remained firmly of the view that the Ivorian head of state should have stuck to his retirement plan and left the RHDP to choose a new succession candidate after Amadou Gon Coulibaly's death...