The Electoral Commission has stated that four well-known opposition figures from the Ivory Coast are no longer eligible to run in the crucial October presidential elections. This leaves them out of the race.
The Independent Electoral Commission’s (CEI) removal of me from the electoral list is a depressing but powerful illustration of Ivory Coast’s transition to total democracy, according to Tidjane Thiam, the party’s leader, in a statement released on Wednesday.
Two days after CEI spokesman Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly stated that the electoral register wouldn’t be revised prior to the vote, Thiam made the statement.
Due to his dual citizenship, Thiam, who was widely regarded as the main challenger to Alassane Ouattara, was removed from the voter rolls in April. In 1987, Thiam, who was born in Ivory Coast, renounced French citizenship in March.
Former President Laurent Gbagbo and his close ally Charles Ble Goude, both of whom were charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the civil war, are two other prominent Ivorians who were kept out of the vote.
Guillaume Soro, the former prime minister and rebel leader, is also prohibited. He was convicted of organizing a coup in absentia, receiving a life sentence.
None of the four will be able to cast ballots or run for president on October 25.
Ouattara, who has been in office since 2011, is listed on the electoral register, but he has not yet announced whether he plans to run for president again.
With more than 80% of the vote, Ouattara won in 2015 and 2020.
According to his party, Thiam has written to the UN Human Rights Committee.
In a statement to the AFP news agency, his lawyer Mathias Chichportich claimed that the opposition leader’s deprivation of “his political rights” was “a serious violation of Ivory Coast’s international commitments.”
According to its Secretary-General Jean-Gervais Tcheide, the authorities “did not choose to listen to the advice, the calls for discussion, for reason,” according to Gbagbo’s African Peoples’ Party-Ivory Coast (PPA-CI).
It’s unfortunate that they chose to impose themselves, he said, adding, “We won’t let them do it.”
The final electoral list includes opposition figures who made announcements about running for president.
Former First Lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, who spoke on behalf of an opposition coalition, claimed that the requirements for a “peaceful, calm election” were not met.
The electoral list was revised in June in advance of the presidential election in October during the 2020 presidential election.
8.7 million voters’ names are included in the final electoral register for this year’s ballot, which is a nation with a high immigrant population and where nearly half of the 30 million people are under the age of 18.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply