In Abidjan’s bustling neighbourhood of Abobo, ‘it’s Alassane or nothing’

[ad_1] In Abobo commune, a long-standing stronghold of Ivory Coast’s incumbent President Alassane Ouattara, the final days of the presidential marketing campaign look extra like a celebration.

Satisfied that their candidate will win outright within the first spherical of the presidential vote on Saturday, the assembled activists heap reward on the “new face” of their neighbourhood. The commune’s come a good distance, they are saying, for the reason that lethal post-election violence of 2011.

In entrance of the city corridor of Abobo, one of many 13 "communes" that make up the nation’s largest metropolis Abidjan, a sweeping plaza hosts grandstands and a stage bearing the president’s image.

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<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/6b73f02e-a443-11f0-a83c-005056bf30b7/w:1280/p:16x9/FR-NW-PKG-CLEAN-EN-TETE-A-TETE-AHOUA-DON-MELLO-AUBIN-Sophian.jpg" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/6b73f02e-a443-11f0-a83c-005056bf30b7/w:388/p:16x9/FR-NW-PKG-CLEAN-EN-TETE-A-TETE-AHOUA-DON-MELLO-AUBIN-Sophian.jpg 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/6b73f02e-a443-11f0-a83c-005056bf30b7/w:720/p:16x9/FR-NW-PKG-CLEAN-EN-TETE-A-TETE-AHOUA-DON-MELLO-AUBIN-Sophian.jpg 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/6b73f02e-a443-11f0-a83c-005056bf30b7/w:1024/p:16x9/FR-NW-PKG-CLEAN-EN-TETE-A-TETE-AHOUA-DON-MELLO-AUBIN-Sophian.jpg 1024w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/6b73f02e-a443-11f0-a83c-005056bf30b7/w:1280/p:16x9/FR-NW-PKG-CLEAN-EN-TETE-A-TETE-AHOUA-DON-MELLO-AUBIN-Sophian.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 639px) calc(100vw - 32px), (max-width: 1076px) calc(100vw - 44px), 850px" width="1280" height="720" alt="TÊTE À TÊTE" loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> TÊTE À TÊTE © FRANCE 24 The environment is festive – an keen baby in a faculty uniform calls out to us. “I’m voting for ADO – who're you voting for?” On the opposite facet of the sq., a human tide draped in orange is pouring in, dancing to the sound of immense audio system.

Round them swirl a workforce of younger Ivorians on curler skates.

“We’re the ADO Boys and Ladies,” one of many activists, Leila Dosso, explains. “Younger volunteers who mobilise throughout the nation each marketing campaign to help our candidate.”

Portraits of Ouattara adorn each road nook, and his title is on everybody’s lips. On the Siaka Koné market beside the plaza, the merest point out of Saturday’s vote sparks wild reactions.

“ADO my candidate!” “It’s Alassane or nothing!” cry the distributors, decked out in wraps, caps and T-shirts bearing the face of their “expensive president”. Ouattara, who has led the nation since 2011, is now campaigning to safe a fourth time period in workplace.

‘Right this moment’s Abobo’ In a metropolis house to greater than six million folks, Abobo is without doubt one of the most closely populated communes, and infrequently thought-about certainly one of its poorest. However the neighbourhood has undergone a drastic change these previous few years.

“Right this moment’s Abobo will not be the Abobo of yesterday,” mentioned Lamine Toure, the secretary-general of the youth wing of the ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP).

On Kennedy Road, the place he grew up, the 30-something-year-old has braved the visitors to evangelise his president’s good works.

“Right here it was virtually all mud, you couldn’t get by,” he says. “Right this moment, look, it’s all paved, and ambulances have quick access because of the street.”

<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/4d3fb174-aee8-11f0-ad45-005056a97e36/w:980/fete-bis.jpg" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/4d3fb174-aee8-11f0-ad45-005056a97e36/w:246/fete-bis.jpg 246w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/4d3fb174-aee8-11f0-ad45-005056a97e36/w:388/fete-bis.jpg 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/4d3fb174-aee8-11f0-ad45-005056a97e36/w:720/fete-bis.jpg 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/4d3fb174-aee8-11f0-ad45-005056a97e36/w:980/fete-bis.jpg 980w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) calc(100vw - 32px), (min-width: 1024px) 850px" alt="Market vendors show their support for incumbent President Alassane Ouattara." style="max-height:478px" loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> Market distributors present their help for incumbent President Alassane Ouattara. © Samia Metheni In his Japanese four-wheeler, Toure and a handful of different activists are on a tour of all the foremost tasks which have sprung up throughout Abobo underneath Ouattara’s watch: the lately inaugurated courthouse – probably the most trendy within the nation, authorities say – in addition to the positioning of the longer term College Hospital Centre, a large building facet sprawling throughout 18 hectares on the neighbourhood’s outskirts, destined to turn into one of many largest educating hospitals in West Africa.

Toure mentioned that these works “provide the inhabitants a greater entry to public providers” in addition to enhancing the neighbourhood’s picture.

“All these building websites and these energy strains make it simpler to entry the neighbourhood, making it safer and giving younger folks work,” he mentioned.

Nearly 9 out of 10 Ivorians rely on the nation’s casual sector to get by, and a big a part of the nation’s youth battle to seek out employment. It’s a actuality that's solely too clear in neighbourhoods like Abobo.

‘Man of peace’ “The enhancements are there to see, however Alassane Ouattara’s programme is a step-by-step programme,” Toure mentioned. “We’re attempting to get this message by to younger folks in order that they perceive. We are able to’t overlook that we’ve bought a protracted approach to go, as a result of we have been fully forgotten by the remainder of the nation.”

A historic stronghold of Ouattara, Abobo is a deeply cosmopolitan neighbourhood. It's house to a big group of Ivorians from the nation’s northern areas, the place the present president has his roots.

<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/ac8d8c1e-aee8-11f0-aa2c-005056a97e36/w:980/IMG20251021120756.jpg" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/ac8d8c1e-aee8-11f0-aa2c-005056a97e36/w:246/IMG20251021120756.jpg 246w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/ac8d8c1e-aee8-11f0-aa2c-005056a97e36/w:388/IMG20251021120756.jpg 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/ac8d8c1e-aee8-11f0-aa2c-005056a97e36/w:720/IMG20251021120756.jpg 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/ac8d8c1e-aee8-11f0-aa2c-005056a97e36/w:980/IMG20251021120756.jpg 980w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) calc(100vw - 32px), (min-width: 1024px) 850px" alt="The future site of a university hospital in Abidjan's Abobo commune." style="max-height:638px" loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> The long run website of a college hospital in Abidjan's Abobo commune. © David Wealthy Following the disaster that adopted the 2011 presidential election, folks right here took up arms towards Laurent Gbagbo’s militias throughout months of violence that left round 3,000 folks useless.

Many Abobo residents misplaced family members within the preventing – together with Toure, whose uncle was killed. Ouattara’s supporters within the neighbourhood champion Ouattara as a “man of peace” who has allowed the commune to show the web page on this darkish chapter of their previous.

‘Knockout blow’ If Ouattara’s face appears to be all over the place in Abobo, the odd poster selling certainly one of his rivals serves as a uncommon reminder that the result of Saturday’s election has but to be determined.

Moreover the incumbent, 4 candidates have been allowed to run by the Constitutional Council: former first woman Simone Ehivet, ex-ministers Ahoua Don Mello and Henriette Lagou in addition to businessman and former commerce minister Jean-Louis Billon.

The 2 most important opposition candidates, Gbagbo and Tidjiane Thiam, haven't been allowed to compete after being struck off the electoral roll – the primary following a felony conviction, and the second as a consequence of controversy over his nationality.

“We authorise the opposite candidates in Abobo, however not those that need to wreck all the pieces,” Toure mentioned, accusing Gbagbo, Thiam and their supporters of desirous to disrupt the operating of the election.

Learn extra Ivory Coast’s former first woman Simone Ehivet eyes the presidency

The thwarted candidates’ events – the Democratic Occasion and the African Folks’s Occasion – have referred to as for every day marches, heedless of a ban on opposition demonstrations imposed by authorities in the course of the marketing campaign interval. Thirty-two folks have been imprisoned for having taken half within the banned protests.

In Abobo, the RHDP is firmly in its factor, with supporters satisfied that the president will win a “knockout blow” – that's, an outright victory within the election’s first spherical. However Ouattara’s supporters are fast to guarantee listeners that everybody is free to specific their political beliefs.

Regardless of this, a door-knocking marketing campaign by ADO’s supporters confirmed that not everybody was feeling relaxed in Abobo forward of the vote.

“I’m not a voter,” one resident mentioned. “I've my alternative, however it’s mine alone.” He rapidly minimize the dialog quick.

Karim, one of many neighbourhood’s residents, mentioned that feelings usually ran excessive within the commune when it got here to politics.

“Right here, persons are very easy,” he mentioned. “A few of them love Alassane Ouattara as if he have been a part of their household, and political discussions aren’t all the time simple. Those that don’t share this viewpoint want to be discreet.

“Personally, politics scares me, and I want to not vote,” he added. “However you must give it to Alassane Ouattara – he made Abobo residents proud once more. Our commune was marginalised and had a nasty popularity. Folks didn’t need to stay right here. Right this moment, it’s being reborn.”