Côte d'Ivoire continues to experience worrying democratic setbacks under #Ouattara .

#Côte d'Ivoire must become a state of law again

Côte d'Ivoire continues to experience worrying democratic setbacks. Hundreds of people are missing or imprisoned for political reasons, most of them without trial. Others are sentenced after a trial bordering on the grotesque. And for those who can get out of jail, the common lot is often parole under the threat of a return to prison at the slightest opposition. Worse, the accounts of many opponents are also blocked without any valid reason, trying to reduce them to indigence. Attacks on the freedom of the press are commonplace. Tens of thousands of Ivorians are forced into exile.

More seriously, to support his quasi-feudal authoritarian regime, which is subject to multinationals, the head of state Alassane #Ouattara

sets up a Senate with candidatures decided in advance. And since we are never better served than ourselves, one-third of the members are appointed by the President of the Republic!

As for the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC - organ in charge of elections in Côte d'Ivoire, which is independent only by name), the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights issued on November 18, 2016, a judgment which calls into question its legality.

On the basis of these elements, the Ivorian opposition, gathered in the political platform "Together for Democracy and Sovereignty" (EDS) and its partners, demonstrated several times in March to challenge the Ivorian authorities. on the need to open political discussions with it and civil society.

On 22 March 2018 about 50 people who were preparing to demonstrate in this context were arrested with great brutality, 18 of whom are still in detention. Amnesty International believes that "systematic restrictions on the right to peaceful protest, a right guaranteed by the constitution, demonstrate the determination of the authorities to silence any dissent".

The PCF shares this view, while pointing out the urgency to release these people, as are all other political prisoners. It demands that the use of the parole mechanism be stopped as a tool against freedom of expression and stop intimidation against journalists.

Côte d'Ivoire must once again become a state of law, a prerequisite for the thousands of Ivorians in exile to return.

French Communist Party

March 26, 2018