Latest news with #PDCI
France 24
4 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
1.3 million Cameroonians are displaced (NRC)
Also, in Burundi, voters head to the polls on June 5th to elect new members of parliament and local councillors. But the campaign has been overshadowed by the exclusion of a key opposition figure: Agathon Rwasa, founder of the National Congress for Liberty. The electoral commission has rejected his candidacy, a move he says is politically motivated and part of a wider crackdown by the ruling party, CNDD-FDD. Our correspondent Juliette Montilly met with him in Bujumbura, just days ahead of the vote. Finally, in Ivory Coast, since 2011 and the end of Ivory Coast's civil war, the West African state's been hailed as a major success story... with big growth on Alassane Ouattara's watch. But the 83-year old's legacy is sure to come under scrutiny with four potential rivals barred from October's presidential election... including the leader of the largest opposition party, the PDCI... Ouattara who's yet to state whether he'll seek a fourth term. Antonia Kerrigan.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Four Ivory Coast opposition figures barred from October presidential vote
Representative Image (AI-generated) ABIDJAN: Four prominent opposition figures in Ivory Coast have been excluded from the final electoral list, officials announced on Wednesday, leaving them ineligible to contest presidential elections later this year. Tidjane Thiam, leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI), was struck from the voter roll in April after a court ruling cast doubt on his Ivorian nationality at the time of registration. Ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, his former right-hand man Charles Ble Goude and exiled former prime minister Guillaume Soro have been barred for years over past convictions and were not reinstated. None of the four will be able to run in the October 25 presidential race or vote. President Alassane Ouattara, 83, who has been in power since 2011, is included on the electoral register but has yet to announce if he will seek a fourth term. In 2015 and 2020, Ouattara won with more than 80 percent of the vote. Electoral commission head Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly had announced on Monday that no revision of the electoral register would take place before the vote. "My elimination from the electoral list by the independent electoral commission is a sad but eloquent example of Ivory Coast's drift towards a total absence of democracy," Thiam said in a statement on Wednesday. The former international banker, who has been away from Ivory Coast for more than two months, has appealed to the UN Human Rights Committee, his party said. His lawyer Mathias Chichportich said in a statement sent to AFP that depriving the opposition leader of "his political rights" was "a serious violation of Ivory Coast's international commitments". For its part, Gbagbo's African Peoples' Party - Ivory Coast (PPA-CI) complained that the authorities "did not choose to listen to the advice, the calls for discussion, for reason", its secretary general Jean-Gervais Tcheide told AFP. "It's a shame they chose to force their way through," he said, adding: "We're not going to let them do it." End all disagreement: Other opposition figures who have announced they will run for the presidency are featured on the final electoral list. They include former first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, who, speaking on behalf of an opposition coalition, said that the conditions were not met for a "peaceful, calm election". Kuibiert Coulibaly, the electoral commission chief, has called for court decisions to be respected to "put an end to all disagreement" and to make Ivory Coast "a state governed by the rule of law". Previously, during the 2020 presidential election, a revision of the electoral list took place in June ahead of the October polling day. The final electoral register for this year's ballot includes the names of 8.7 million voters, in a country with a high immigrant population and where nearly half of the 30 million inhabitants are under the age of 18. Authorities deny any political interference in the electoral process, insisting that they respect decisions made by an independent judiciary.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Ivory Coast's final electoral list excludes opposition leader Thiam
ABIDJAN (Reuters) -Ivory Coast opposition leader and former Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam has been excluded from the country's final list of presidential candidates, rendering him ineligible to contest an October election, a party official said on Wednesday. Thiam told Reuters in April he would not drop his presidential bid despite a court ruling that his name be struck from the list due to his French nationality at the time of registration. The electoral commission's decision risks reviving tensions in a country that emerged from more than a decade of civil war in the early 2000s. The conflict was partly fuelled by disputes over nationality and electoral eligibility. Thiam, 62, was elected as leader of the PDCI, the main opposition party in the world's top cocoa-producing nation, in December 2023. "My removal from the electoral roll by the Independent Electoral Commission is a sad but telling example of Ivory Coast's abandonment of democracy," Thiam said in a statement to Reuters. "We will fight, fight for democracy and peace in our country," said Simon Doho, president of the PDCI parliamentary group. Other prominent politicians, including former president Laurent Gbagbo and his close ally Charles Ble Goude - both acquitted on charges of crimes against humanity related to the civil war - were also ruled ineligible for the October election. So too was former prime minister and rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in 2021 on charges of plotting a coup against his former ally, President Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara, who has served three terms, has not declared whether he'll run in the election. His ruling RHDP party is scheduled to select its candidate on June 21 and 22. Thiam's lawyer, Mathias Chichportich, said his client had filed a complaint on Tuesday with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. "This action seeks to compel the Ivorian state to take all necessary measures to ensure that the presidential election is held under fair, inclusive, and democratic conditions," Chichportich said.
The Star
4 days ago
- General
- The Star
Ivory Coast's final electoral list excludes opposition leader Thiam
FILE PHOTO: Partisans of PDCI (Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire) protest against the Ivorian justice decision to remove their leader Tidjane Thiam from the electoral list, at their headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast April 24, 2025. REUTERS/Luc Gnago/File Photo ABIDJAN (Reuters) -Ivory Coast opposition leader and former Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam has been excluded from the country's final list of presidential candidates, rendering him ineligible to contest an October election, a party official said on Wednesday. Thiam told Reuters in April he would not drop his presidential bid despite a court ruling that his name be struck from the list due to his French nationality at the time of registration. The electoral commission's decision risks reviving tensions in a country that emerged from more than a decade of civil war in the early 2000s. The conflict was partly fuelled by disputes over nationality and electoral eligibility. Thiam, 62, was elected as leader of the PDCI, the main opposition party in the world's top cocoa-producing nation, in December 2023. "My removal from the electoral roll by the Independent Electoral Commission is a sad but telling example of Ivory Coast's abandonment of democracy," Thiam said in a statement to Reuters. "We will fight, fight for democracy and peace in our country," said Simon Doho, president of the PDCI parliamentary group. Other prominent politicians, including former president Laurent Gbagbo and his close ally Charles Ble Goude - both acquitted on charges of crimes against humanity related to the civil war - were also ruled ineligible for the October election. So too was former prime minister and rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in 2021 on charges of plotting a coup against his former ally, President Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara, who has served three terms, has not declared whether he'll run in the election. His ruling RHDP party is scheduled to select its candidate on June 21 and 22. Thiam's lawyer, Mathias Chichportich, said his client had filed a complaint on Tuesday with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. "This action seeks to compel the Ivorian state to take all necessary measures to ensure that the presidential election is held under fair, inclusive, and democratic conditions," Chichportich said. (Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Ivory Coast's final electoral list excludes opposition leader Thiam
FILE PHOTO: Tidjane Thiam, president of the PDCI (Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire), Ivory Coast's main opposition leader and former Credit Suisse Chief Executive, poses after an interview with Reuters in Paris, France, April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo FILE PHOTO: Partisans of PDCI (Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire) protest against the Ivorian justice decision to remove their leader Tidjane Thiam from the electoral list, at their headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast April 24, 2025. REUTERS/Luc Gnago/File Photo ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast opposition leader and former Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam has been excluded from the country's final list of presidential candidates, rendering him ineligible to contest an October election, a party official said on Wednesday. Thiam told Reuters in April he would not drop his presidential bid despite a court ruling that his name be struck from the list due to his French nationality at the time of registration. The electoral commission's decision risks reviving tensions in a country that emerged from more than a decade of civil war in the early 2000s. The conflict was partly fuelled by disputes over nationality and electoral eligibility. Thiam, 62, was elected as leader of the PDCI, the main opposition party in the world's top cocoa-producing nation, in December 2023. "My removal from the electoral roll by the Independent Electoral Commission is a sad but telling example of Ivory Coast's abandonment of democracy," Thiam said in a statement to Reuters. "We will fight, fight for democracy and peace in our country," said Simon Doho, president of the PDCI parliamentary group. Other prominent politicians, including former president Laurent Gbagbo and his close ally Charles Ble Goude - both acquitted on charges of crimes against humanity related to the civil war - were also ruled ineligible for the October election. So too was former prime minister and rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in 2021 on charges of plotting a coup against his former ally, President Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara, who has served three terms, has not declared whether he'll run in the election. His ruling RHDP party is scheduled to select its candidate on June 21 and 22. Thiam's lawyer, Mathias Chichportich, said his client had filed a complaint on Tuesday with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. "This action seeks to compel the Ivorian state to take all necessary measures to ensure that the presidential election is held under fair, inclusive, and democratic conditions," Chichportich said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
