Ivory Coast Court Bars Opposition Leader from Elec...

Ivory Coast Court Bars Opposition Leader from Election Over Citizenship

*Ivory Coast opposition leader, Tidjane Thiam*

Zim Now Writer

A court in Ivory Coast has ruled that prominent opposition leader Tidjane Thiam should be removed from the country’s electoral roll due to his previous French nationality, casting doubt over his eligibility to run in the upcoming presidential election set for October.

Thiam, a former Credit Suisse Chief Executive and now leader of the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire, was deemed ineligible on the grounds that he was still a French national when he registered as a voter. According to his lawyer, the court based its decision on Article 48 of the Ivorian Nationality Code, which states that individuals who have acquired foreign nationality lose their Ivorian citizenship unless they undertake specific procedures to retain it.

“The court ruled that given his French nationality, he was no longer Ivorian at the time of registration,” Thiam's lawyer told Reuters. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

The decision has sparked criticism from Thiam, who described the ruling as politically motivated. “Ivorians expect the judicial system to guarantee peaceful, transparent and credible elections—not to serve as an instrument for a regime seeking to hoard power and silence its critics,” he said in a statement.

He further condemned the court’s ruling as an “act of democratic vandalism,” warning that it risks disenfranchising millions of voters and undermining the credibility of the electoral process.

Thiam officially renounced his French citizenship in February to comply with eligibility rules that require presidential candidates to be Ivorian nationals without any dual nationality. A document published in France’s official journal last month confirmed the revocation of his French citizenship.

His disqualification is a major blow to the opposition ahead of the high-stakes election. Thiam was widely seen as a serious contender and a unifying figure for the opposition since taking leadership of the PDCI in 2023.