Credit: Wikipedia /  Monsieur Pascal Affi N’Guessan,   du Front Populaire Ivoirien

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The Ivory Coast government released prominent political opposition leader Pascal Affi N’Guessan Wednesday after he had been arrested and detained following the October 31 presidential elections in the West African nation, according to AFP.   N’Guessan, a former Ivory Coast prime minister,  was a candidate in the presidential elections. The party of Ivory Coast’s former president Laurent Gbagbo (FPI) named his ex-PM  N’Guessan as its candidate for the October vote. Alassane  Ouattara was sworn in office this month  for a controversial  third term as the president of Ivory Coast.  Ouattara  was re-elected president, but the main opposition candidates boycotted the election and called on supporters to stay at home as an act of civil disobedience.  Pre-election violence escalated amid anger over Ouattara’s decision to run for a third term many condemn as “illegal” and against the nation’s constitution.  President Ouattara shocked the country in August when he formally accepted the nomination of the ruling party to be its candidate in October’s election.  After the election, N’Guessan declared  that opposition parties and groups were forming a “council of national transition”.    Security forces then surrounded the homes of opposition leaders after they rejected President Alassane Ouattara’s re-election and vowed  to set up  the transitional government.  N’Guessan was arrested in early November for “conspiracy against the state authority.”   The mood among Ivorians is one of fatigue and a desire for peace and reconciliation .   N’Guessan,  and Henri Konan Bédié, the main opposition of Ouattara, both refused to recognize his  electoral victory labeling  it a “sham”.  

Credit:  Sara Abraham  /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Nov. 4, 2020.  Most streets in commercial city Abidjan were calm and quiet today with no reports of violence following the October 31 presidential election.