Henri Konan Bedie, the nationalist former president of Ivory Coast, who had not ruled out the possibility of returning to power even in his later years, has passed away at the age of 89, according to his party.
The “Ivory Coast Democratic Party-African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA)” expressed deep sorrow as it announced the sudden death of Bedie at a hospital in Abidjan on Tuesday, as stated in a press release. A crowd began gathering outside his residence in the capital, as reported by an AFP journalist.
Born in 1934 into a family of cocoa planters, Bedie was the chosen successor to Ivory Coast’s founding father, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who governed the West African nation from its independence from France in 1960 until his death in 1993 at the age of 88. Bedie served as president from 1993 to 1999 when he was ousted by the military in the country’s first-ever coup.
Known as the “Sphinx of Daoukro,” after his hometown, Bedie was known for his economical use of words and demonstrated a knack for political survival. He made unsuccessful attempts to regain the presidency in 2000, 2010, and 2020.
“For us in the PDCI, age is an asset. Age combines experience and competence,” Bedie told journalists before the October 2020 presidential election, which was won by the current President Alassane Ouattara amidst an opposition boycott. Bedie secured the third position with 1.7 percent of the vote.
Bedie’s longstanding rivalry with Ouattara goes back three decades, and he had not ruled out the possibility of running in the country’s next presidential election in 2025.
One of Bedie’s major impacts on national politics was the promotion of “Ivoirite” (Ivorian-ness) – the concept of national identity and economy in a country with numerous ethnic groups. This nationalist policy discriminated against immigrants in favor of people with both Ivorian parents, affecting many workers in the country’s cocoa plantations.
Bedie and other political leaders attempted to use this measure to prevent Ouattara, whose father was considered to be from neighboring Burkina Faso, from running for president in 1995. This policy stood in contrast to Houphouet-Boigny’s efforts to uphold unity and played a role in the armed conflict and turmoil that occurred between 2000 and 2011.
In the 2010 presidential elections, Bedie came third, following Ouattara and the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. He supported Ouattara during the post-election crisis and for his first six years in power but later fell out with him.
Despite his age, Bedie was able to fend off all attempts by younger generations within his party to replace him. The PDCI had nominated him as its candidate for the 2020 elections. A party executive described him as a fine tactician who weathered all storms and had the ability to convince “the young guns” of the PDCI to support him once again.