Côte d’Ivoire/Presidential: Final electoral list excludes major opposition figures
The Independent Electoral Commission published the final electoral list this Wednesday for the upcoming presidential election in October in Côte d’Ivoire. Unsurprisingly, several prominent opposition figures are absent from the list, including Cheick Tidjane Thiam, who was excluded in April following a court decision challenging his Ivorian nationality at the time of his registration.
The former CEO of Credit Suisse, who became a French citizen in 1987 and renounced that nationality last March, is affected by Article 48 of the nationality code, which stipulates the loss of Ivorian nationality in the case of voluntarily acquiring another nationality. His party, the PDCI, denounces what it calls a politically motivated exclusion orchestrated by the government and has brought the matter before the UN Human Rights Committee.
Other long-standing opposition figures such as Laurent Gbagbo, Charles Blé Goudé, and Guillaume Soro also remain excluded from the electoral register. In total, over 8.7 million Ivorians are registered. Prospective candidates will need to begin collecting citizen endorsements by the end of June.
