Despite being disqualified by a 20-year jail sentence, former President of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo has agreed to run for the presidency once more, his party has announced.
Gbagbo was the first former president to go on trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague where he was acquitted in 2019.
He “agrees to be the candidate of the PPA-CI” (African People’s Party-Ivory Coast) following a central committee meeting, said a statement released late Sunday.
Although he has been cleared of crimes against humanity in The Hague, Gbagbo had been sentenced in Ivory Coast to 20 years in prison for holding up a bank.
A bloody unrest followed after Gbagbo lost the 2010 elections to Ouattara but refused to step down. This made France and the UN military intervene.
In 2022, he was pardoned by the sitting president and his old rival Ouattara but cannot stand for the presidential election next year.
His party said it formalise Gbagbo’s candidacy at an extraordinary congress. The party explained further that it would ensure Gbagbo’s name is added to the electoral register.
His 2018 sentence deprived him of his civic rights, therefore barring him from the list.
The West African nation’s leading opposition group, the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) appointed former Credit Suisse Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam as its new president in December.
While Alassane Ouattara has not declared intentions for the 2025 presidential election, Thiam signalled his intention to run for president of Ivory Coast in October next year.
Thiam, 61, won a bid to lead the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast at a congress last year. In an interview with Paris-based newspaper Le Monde on Monday, March 11, 2024, the former banker will seek the party’s nomination to run for president at a forthcoming convention.
