Former Ivory Coast president Henri Konan Bedie, a nationalist who had not ruled out a return to office even in his final days, has died at the age of 89, according to his party.
According to a statement, the “Ivory Coast Democratic Party-African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA) is deeply saddened” to announce Bedie’s “sudden death” in Abidjan on Tuesday.
Bedie, a career politician born in 1934 was chosen as the successor to Ivory Coast’s founding father, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who controlled the west African nation from its independence from France in 1960 until his death in 1993, aged 88.
Bedie was president from 1993 to 1999, when he was deposed by the military in the country’s first coup.
Bedie, dubbed the “Sphinx of Daoukro” for his native town and word economy, displayed political survival skills.
He tried unsuccessfully to return as president in 2000, 2010 and 2020.
Bedie, whose rivalry with Ouattara dates back three decades, had not ruled out running in the country’s next presidential election in 2025.
Bedie’s main influence on national politics had been to promote “Ivoirite” (Ivorian-ness) the notion of a national identity and national economy in a country with dozens of ethnic groups.
The nationalist policy discriminated against immigrants in favour of people with two Ivorian parents, affecting countless workers on the country’s cocoa plantations.
Bedie came third in the 2010 presidential elections, behind Ouattara and the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.
He supported Ouattara in the post-election crisis, and for his first six years in power, but fell out with him again.
A party executive said he was “a fine tactician who weathered all storms” and was able to convince “the young guns” of the PDCI to support him again.
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