The African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights on Friday unanimously ordered the state of Cote d’Ivoire to reinstate former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo on the 2020 electoral list.
“The court unanimously ordered the respondent state to take all necessary measures to immediately remove all obstacles preventing the applicant (Mr. Gbagbo) from registering on the electoral list,” the decision consulted by APA said.
Previously, the Court had requested that the reference to the applicant’s criminal record be suspended until it ruled on the merits of the main application. The name of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has been removed from the Ivorian electoral list for 2020 and his candidacy for the Ivorian presidential election on October 31 has been invalidated by the Constitutional Council.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), the Ivorian electoral body, there are two reasons for removing a person from the electoral roll, namely, the loss of civic rights or the death of the voter.
The withdrawal of Mr. Gbagbo from the electoral list had led to street demonstrations in Abidjan with the arrest of some opposition activists.
On mid-September, the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights had also asked the state of Cote d’Ivoire “to take all necessary measures to immediately remove all obstacles” so that the applicant Guillaume Soro, the former Ivorian national assembly speaker can “enjoy his rights to elect and be elected.”
Mr. Soro, who is in exile in France and is being prosecuted by the Ivorian judiciary, has also seen his name removed from the Ivorian electoral list of 2020 and his candidacy for the presidential election invalidated.
Gbagbo and Soro have been convicted by the Ivorian courts.
LB/ls/lb/abj/APA