Candidate in the presidential election of October 31, 2020, Kouadio Konan Bertin, known as KKB, is not willing to boycott the elections. At a time when the Ivorian opposition is maintaining pressure for the withdrawal of Alassane Ouattara’s candidacy, the dissolution of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Constitutional Council, the former deputy will be sworn in on October 4, 2020 to face the candidate of the Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix (RHDP).
Unlike Pascal Affi N’Guessan, candidate of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), who decided to suspend his nomination, initially scheduled for Saturday, September 26, 2020, Kouadio Konan Bertin, better known as KKB, will indeed be invested on Sunday, October 4, 2020, we learned from his spokesperson, Simone Ayeri. This was during a press conference held on Tuesday. “It is for me to inform you of the investiture ceremony scheduled to be held on Sunday, October 4 at the Palace of Culture at the Anoumabo Hall, from 8 am,” said the collaborator of the former deputy of the municipality of Port-Bouët.
Clearly, KKB, in the name of any appeal from the opposition, refuses to suspend its investiture ceremony as Pascal Affi N’Guessan did. It should not be forgotten that from Paris, Guillaume Soro, whose candidacy was rejected by the Constitutional Council, asked Ivorian opponents to engage in a “unity of action of the opposition to stop Mr. Ouattara in his crazy adventure, by all legal and legitimate means. However, in his appeal, the leader of the Soroists has royally ignored KKB. In any case, Kouadio Konan Bertin is determined to confront Alassane Ouattara at the polls. As Henri Konan Bédié and Pascal Affi N’guessan withdraw from the race, there will be a duel between the outgoing president and the former PDCI youth president.
In the opposition, many accuse him of being Alassane Ouattara’s sparring partner, or even of being in cahoots with him to nibble at the PDCI electorate. “These are the words of those who choose a logic of demonization to vilify a candidacy,” he defends.
At 56 years old, KKB, former PDCI youth leader, who still poses as a youth candidate, assures him: he will participate in the October 31 elections. “But if we don’t want elections, what else do we propose to Ivorians? Why still include Côte d’Ivoire in this spiral? Since 2000, we are in this logic».
KKB will meet its supporters on October 4th at the Treichville Palace of Culture for its investiture.