"It's the turn of a new generation," Ivorian presidential candidate Jean-Louis Billon, a dissident from the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI), told AFP on Thursday on the sidelines of a rally in Dabou (south).

With less than 10 days to go before the election, the electoral campaign is taking place in a tense climate in Côte d'Ivoire, following the exclusion of opposition leaders. Prohibited demonstrations were dispersed, and one person died, according to the police, and three, according to the opposition.

"I represent this new generation," Jean-Louis Billon told AFP in Dabou, a town of some 130,000 inhabitants located 50km west of Abidjan.

A businessman and head of Sifca, the leading agro-industrial group and largest private employer in Côte d'Ivoire, Jean-Louis Billon, 59, was Minister of Commerce from 2012 to 2017, at a time when the PDCI was allied with the ruling party.

A self-proclaimed liberal, Jean-Louis Billon still hopes to gain the support of the PDCI, whose candidate Tidjane Thiam is excluded from the election, but, for the moment, few executives have joined him.

"Dabou is an area that combines the entire agro-industrial economy of Côte d'Ivoire," Mr. Billon explained to AFP, calling for "balanced development across the entire" country.

"Based on the current regime's record, growth is primarily achieved through public investment; with Billon, we want private-sector-led growth," a member of his entourage emphasizes.

In front of thousands of people, some wearing T-shirts with his image, he addressed young people and said he wanted to "revalue" health workers, teachers and civil servants.

In the audience, Joseph Aka, 35, unemployed, will vote for Billon next week: "He's a guy who speaks well to young people. As young people, we suffer a lot, there's no work, we're forced to go to the fields."

Dabou's economy is based in particular on the cultivation of oil palms and rubber trees.

"I'm going to vote for Jean-Louis Billon because he's a hard worker," says Djenebou Keita, a 23-year-old shopkeeper who is delighted by the candidate's announcement to build a university in Dabou.

Three other opposition candidates are qualified to challenge President Alassane Ouattara, 83, who is seeking a fourth term: two former companions of former head of state Laurent Gbagbo who have broken with him, namely his ex-wife Simone Ehivet Gbagbo and former minister Ahoua Don Mello, and Henriette Lagou, who was already a candidate in 2015.

AFP