Latest news with #IvoryCoastElection
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
I. Coast president Ouattara tapped to run for fourth term
Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's party on Saturday tapped him to run for president again, two days after the country's two main opposition parties joined forces to fight his possible candidacy. Ouattara himself has not yet confirmed whether or not he will run for a fourth term as president of the west African country. But delegates accepted his candidacy after Patrick Achi, head of the congress of the ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), proposed him in the president's absence. His nomination comes after weeks of rising political tensions triggered by the courts' barring of several opposition politicians from the October 25 election. Ouattara's critics, who accuse the US-trained economist of creeping authoritarianism, fiercely oppose his possible candidacy. Ivory Coast's two main opposition parties on Thursday announced a "common front" to demand that their leaders, banned from October presidential polls, be allowed to stand. It brings together the African People's Party -- Ivory Coast (PPA-CI) of former president Laurent Gbagbo and former international banker Tidjane Thiam's Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI), the country's largest opposition force. Gbagbo, whose contesting of the 2010 vote which saw Ouattara elected triggered violence which killed 3,000 people, is among the politicians the courts have struck off the list of candidates for president. - 'Continue the adventure' - Whether Ouattara will run again is the question on everyone's lips in the west African nation. Ouattara, who will turn 84 in January, has maintained the suspense for months. A comment made in January that he was "eager to continue serving" the country has so far been the only clue he is considering a fourth term. Ouattara is on Sunday due to address a major meeting at the Ebimpe stadium, where Ivory Coast's footballers won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2024. His supporters see the head of state, who made a career as an economist for the International Monetary Fund before turning to politics, as a beacon of stability. They loudly cheered his nomination on Saturday, chanting his nickname "Ado" after his initials. "He has to accept and listen to the cries of his children who are calling on him to continue the adventure," said Honore Adom, who came to the congress from the eastern Indenie-Djuablin region. "He has so pleased us that he must finish the works that he has begun," Lassana Kone, who travelled from Gbeke in central Ivory Coast, told AFP. - 'Envy of many' - Before the thousands gathered at the congress in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's economic capital, the RHDP's leadership hailed Ouattara's stewardship of the country. On his watch Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, has seen seven-percent economic growth nearly every year. "Ivory Coast has made major advances on the economic, social and cultural fronts, with sustained growth that has made us the envy of many," said Vice President Tiemoko Meyliet Kone. Equipment minister Amedee Koffi Kouakou said Ouattara had made the country "a haven of peace" in an often restive region. Yet the president's critics have pointed to the striking-off of his potential opponents from running in the upcoming vote as evidence of Ouattara's increasing abuses of power. Besides ex-president Gbagbo, the courts have also prevented his former right-hand man Charles Ble Goude and ex-prime minister Guillaume Soro from taking part in the race on legal grounds. The PDCI's Thiam, who has been outside Ivory Coast since the middle of March, is barred for issues of nationality. The authorities have insisted that the decisions were taken by the independent courts, denying any political intervention in the electoral processes. pid/jj-sbk/jj
Reuters
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Ivory Coast former minister Billon seeks to lead opposition in October vote
ABIDJAN, June 9 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast former trade minister Jean-Louis Billon said he is seeking to represent the opposition PDCI party in October's presidential election after former Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam was excluded from the final list of candidates last week. The question of who will carry the mantle of the main opposition party risks adding to tensions in the world's top cocoa producer, which has a history of election-related violence including a brief civil war after the 2010 presidential contest that killed about 3,000 people. In an interview with Reuters in the commercial capital Abidjan, Billon, 60, blamed party officials for the handling of legal challenges to Thiam's candidacy and did not rule out the possibility of representing another party, though he said it was too early to make such a move. "I am asking for the PDCI's support," he said. "It's a shame that (PDCI) President Thiam was eliminated, but it was the result of the lack of preparation of certain party officials that led to his elimination. That's why you always have to have several strings to your bow, especially when you're in politics." The electoral commission published its final list of candidates last week, excluding Thiam, who denounced the decision as a sign of the "abandonment of democracy". Ivory Coast law states that candidates must be Ivorian citizens and cannot hold another nationality. Thiam renounced his French citizenship in February in order to meet eligibility conditions for the election. But a court in Ivory Coast ruled in April that Thiam should be removed from the electoral roll because he was a French national when he registered. Thiam told Reuters after that decision that he planned to fight on and run anyway. The notion of Ivorian identity was at the heart of past violence in Ivory Coast, and some fear lingering questions over Thiam's nationality in the run-up to the vote risk pushing those tensions back to the surface. Incumbent President Alassane Ouattara himself was barred from seeking the presidency over what opponents said were his foreign origins before he finally won election in 2010. Ouattara, 83, has not said whether he will run again this year. Billon told Reuters that if elected he would endorse a law to lift restrictions on dual nationality. "You have thousands of Ivorians who live abroad, who have made their lives abroad, and who end up having dual nationality," he said. Billon also said he would trim the civil service, crack down on corruption, promote private sector investment and move more government offices to Yamoussoukro, the political capital. He said it was time for Ouattara and other politicians of his generation to leave the scene. "Ivory Coast will change. I think our elders have had their day," he said.
Bloomberg
14-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Thiam Plans Surprise Return as Leader of Ivory Coast Opposition
Tidjane Thiam, former chief executive officer of Credit Suisse Group AG, is running unopposed to lead Ivory Coast's main opposition party just days after he resigned from the post, a maneuver aimed at bypassing a challenge to his eligibility to fill the position. The 62-year-old banker stepped down as head of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast this week citing what he called 'judicial harassment' but will stand again in an election on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by the party on Tuesday. Thiam's leadership of the party — and ability to run in October's presidential election — was challenged in court over his dual French citizenship, which he gave up in February.
