Ivory Coast President Gets Legal Approval to Seek Third Term
Ivory Coast President Gets Legal Approval to Seek Third Term
Ivory Coast’s Constitutional Council cleared President Alassane Ouattara to seek a controversial third term in next month’s election as it rejected the candidacy of two prominent opposition leaders.
The incumbent and his main challenger, Henri Konan Bedie, are among four candidates out of 44 presidential hopefuls that the panel allowed to participate in the Oct. 31 vote. It barred ex-speaker of parliament and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, as well as Laurent Gbagbo, Ouattara’s predecessor, in a decision that may stir unrest.
Opposition activists have staged sporadic protests in the world’s top cocoa-grower since Ouattara, 78, announced last month he’ll seek reelection. His critics say Ivorian law only allows two presidential terms, while the ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace argues that a new constitution adopted in 2016 reset the clock.
“A judicial debate took place in a transparent manner,” Ouattara’s lawyer, Abdoulaye Ben Meite, told reporters after the panel announced its decision Monday in the commercial capital, Abidjan. “The Constitutional Council has settled the debate and I think Ivorians will do well to comply with this decision, to respect the decision and the authority from which it came.”
Earlier this year, Ouattara said he would step down and hand over to a younger generation of leaders. He reversed course after the sudden death in July of his anointed successor, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, saying he would run again “because of the challenges we face to maintain peace.”
A former International Monetary Fund executive, Ouattara has presided over annual economic growth of at least 7% since 2012, his first full year in office.
Soro, who has been living in France since December, said he will announce on Sept. 17 what steps he’ll be taking to “fight for democracy,” according to a post on his Facebook page.
Soro was convicted in absentia in April 2020 of embezzlement and money laundering. Gbagbo was sentenced in absentia in November 2019 for “looting” a local branch of the Central Bank of West African States. These convictions led the electoral commission to remove them from the voter’s register -- and that ultimately disqualified them from running for office, the council said Monday.
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