Adama Bictogo

National Assembly Speaker Adama Bictogo recently described Ouattara as 'our natural candidate'...

Demolition derbyOne such contest has exploded in Yopougon Abidjan's most populous suburb where RHDP bigwig Adama Bictogo is mayor and engaged in a nasty tussle with fellow RHDP bigwig and Governor of the Abidjan District Ibrahim Cissé Bacongo...

The RHDP has fielded Adama Bictogo party organiser visa and ferry tycoon and president of the Assemblée nationale against Michel Koudou Gbagbo the son of the former president...

He has reined in Adama Bictogo formerly the boss of the RHDP machine but keeping the former businessman and minister in a significant internal role and in the much more visible post of interim Speaker of the Assemblée Nationale (AC Vol 62 No 23 When the parties go to pieces)...

Whether he will do more depend on two things: the performance of other contenders such as Patrick Achi or Adama Bictogo; and a ruling on the age limit for the presidency which is to be made by Ouattara and the RHDP parliamentarians...

Adama Bictogo who shot up through the ranks heads the party as its Executive Director and central organiser of main events such as party congresses...

One is Adama Bictogo 59 the RHDP Executive Director whose career took him from rebel circles to business and politics...

Ouattara finally has mortally divided his party and the RHDP is now set to become factionalised between the potential frontrunners for its leadership: Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko party director Adama Bictogo and Secretary-General of the Presidency Patrick Achi...

The opposition gathered around the unlikely figure of the 86-year-old former president Henri Konan Bédié himself deposed in Côte d'Ivoire's first coup in 1999 could do no more than announce the creation on 2 November of a Conseil national de transition (CNT – Transitional National Council) which the director of the ruling Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix (RHDP) Adama Bictogo instantly dismissed as 'an act of defiance against the authorities'...

It is equally unlikely that the RHDP will survive Ouattara's eventual departure: failure to find a successor – neither Hamed Bakayoko nor fast-rising star Adama Bictogo appear to be to the liking of other party bigwigs – could be fatal...

' Bit players with key roles Key roles in Ahmed Gon Coulibaly's expected victory in the October polls lie with influential Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix (RHDP) supporters in the machine such as party secretary-general Adama Bictogo – who has played a crucial role in pulling the constituent elements of the former alliance into a coherent party – and presidency spokeswoman Masséré Touré...

Party secretary general Adama Bictogo is a loyalist of the prime minister but lacked the clout to swing the machine behind him...