Ivory Coast’s Constitutional Council has ruled out two of the country’s most prominent opposition figures from competing in the October 25 presidential election.
On Monday, the council confirmed that former president Laurent Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam are ineligible to contest the vote. Both men had submitted candidacies to challenge incumbent President Alassane Ouattara, 83, who is running for a fourth term.
The council cited their exclusion from the electoral roll as grounds for disqualification. Thiam, who leads the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), was removed in April over nationality-related legal concerns linked to his French citizenship. Gbagbo, now at the helm of the African Peoples’ Party of Côte d’Ivoire, was barred due to a past criminal conviction.
Their absence significantly reshapes the race, which now features five contenders, among them former First Lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo and ex-ministers Jean-Louis Billon, Ahoua Don Mello, and Henriette Lagou.
The decision narrows the opposition field just weeks ahead of a pivotal election in West Africa’s largest cocoa producer.
