Panafrican News Agency

President Ouattara's decision not to run again reinforces the standard of a limit of two presidential terms

Paris, France (PANA) - France has welcomed the announcement by Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara not to be a candidate in the 2020 Presidential election, believing that the decision strengthens the norm of a limit to two Presidential Terms in the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
 
"This announcement reinforces the standard, already enshrined in the Constitution of all ECOWAS countries, of a limit of two presidential terms," ​​Olivier Gauvin, deputy director of communications and press, deputy spokesperson for the Quai d'Orsay, said during a press briefing on Friday.
 
President Ouattara, after two terms in 2010 and 2015 as head of Côte d'Ivoire, announced Thursday during a speech to the nation before Senators and deputies gathered in congress in Yamoussoukro, that he will not run for a third term in the presidential election, scheduled for next October.
 
“Throughout my career, I have always attached particular importance to respecting my commitments. As a result, I decided not to be a candidate in 2020. This decision is in line with what I have always said, namely that we must leave room for a young generation, in whom we must trust, the honest, competent, experienced young Ivorians who learned alongside us as we did with the Father of the Nation, Félix Houphouët-Boigny", he declared to the elected representatives of the people gathered in the large amphitheater of the Foundation Félix Houphouët- Boigny of Yamoussoukro.
 
For Paris, this decision can only facilitate the organization of consensual and inclusive elections in Côte d'Ivoire. "France welcomes in this regard the mobilization of the European Union and the International Organization of Francophonie, which will support the Ivorian electoral process and help to facilitate the emergence of a national consensus," underlined the deputy spokesperson of the Quai d'Orsay.

-0- PANA BM/IS/KND/VAO 7March2020