Ex-Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo had on Saturday agreed to lead the party he founded into the 2025 presidential elections. Spokesman Katinan Kone had revealed this news to Reuters after a meeting of the party’s central committee.
Gbagbo, the president of the West African country from 2000 to 2011, had established his African People’s Party – Cote d’Ivoire (PPA-CI) in 2021 after his liberation on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court, —ICC and return from a decade abroad.
He was acquitted in 2019 by the Netherlands-based ICC on charges regarding his role in a civil war sparked by his refusal to accept defeat in an election.
Gbagbo had lost control of the party he had previously founded, the Ivorian Popular Front —IPF, to an ex ally while imprisoned awaiting trial in the Netherlands for many years, but he retains a large and loyal base of supporters at home.
The election is scheduled to be held in October 2025. President Alassane Ouattara, who was re-elected in 2020, has yet to declare his intentions on whether he will run again.
Another possible challenger for the presidential seat is Tidjane Thiam, the former chief executive of Swiss bank Credit Suisse, who in December became president of the PDCI, one of Ivory Coast’s main opposition parties, though the party has yet to formally announce its chosen candidate.
