Ivory Coast opposition leaders meet in Daoukro

Former Ivory Coast presidents Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bedie met on Saturday to publicly oppose sitting-President Allasane Ouattara's third term, which Ivorian opposition has deemed unconstitutional.

President Ouattara was re-elected for a third term at end of last year following a tense election that was marred by clashes and an opposition boycott.

Saturday's meeting, held in Daoukro, a town situated in east of Ivory Coast, marked first time in a decade two former leaders had met, and signaled a potential new chapter for Gbagbo, who returned to Ivory Coast last month two years after he was acquitted of crimes against humanity at International Criminal Court at Hague.

Taking on a reconciliatory tone, Gbagbo and Bedia both smiled and waved at crowd, as supporters and party members danced and waved banners and or merchandise celebrating leaders' meeting.

During a thirty-minute speech Gbagbo told crowd that he would t remain silent on issue of Ouattara's re-election for a third term.

"While Ivory Coast continues to burn, and (if) I say thing, that will mean complicity on my part. So I have to say something. I have to say that I am in agreement with this battle against third mandate", he said.

Gbagbo was extradited to ICC Hague in 2011, and spent eight years awaiting trial on war crimes charges related to post-electoral violence that engulfed Ivory Coast after its 2010 presidential election.

A judge acquitted him in 2019, saying prosecutors had failed to prove ir case.

verdict was appealed but upheld in late March, clearing way for Gbagbo to leave Belgium, where he had spent past two years.