Amadou Gon Coulibaly

President Alassane Dramane Ouattara had signalled his readiness to retire but has now postponed a final decision until mid-next year as he faces up to the reality that none of his most trusted political heirs – Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly Vice-President Daniel Kablan Duncan and Defence Minister Hamed Bakayoko – is an obvious potential election favourite...

Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly remains the favourite but Defence Minister Hamed Bakayoko has never taken his eye off the ball...

These were hitherto seen as the RDR's Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly or Defence Minister Hamed Bakayoko and the PDCI vice-president Daniel Kablan Duncan or Energy Minister Thierry Tanoh or even the increasingly estranged Parliamentary Speaker Guillaume Soro (nominally RDR) (AC Vol 59 No 3 Jockeying for position and Vol 59 No 14 Move over grandad)...

The three protagonists will be former rebel leader and current Parliament Speaker Guillaume Soro defence minister and former presidential favourite Hamed Bakayoko and the latest anointed heir Amadou Gon Coulibaly the current Prime Minister...

On 4 July Ouattara dissolved the current government retaining Amadou Gon Coulibaly as Prime Minister but ordering him to purge the cabinet of PDCI members...

Continuing his steady ascent Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly got the second highest post first vice-president confirming his status as heir apparent at the expense of Bakayoko...

The new Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly will need to deal quickly and decisively with the raft of problems that have exploded in the first weeks of the year: two mutinies the first by soldiers the second by gendarmes and a strike by public sector workers (see Box Mutineers may be back for more)...

The name most widely mentioned in this connection is Amadou Gon Coulibaly one of Ouattara's most trusted lieutenants (AC Vol 57 No 9 Parties to many disputes)...

RDR bigwig Amadou Gon Coulibaly looks like a serious contender for the party presidency but has said nothing about the issue of the RHDP candidate...

Tanoh is currently Secretary General to the Presidency and a close friend of Ouattara's campaign manager the RDR Secretary General Amadou Gon Coulibaly...