The campaign for the Ivorian presidential election of October 25, 2025, is taking place amid the fallout from excluding a lineup of opposition figures, including former President Laurent Gbagbo.
Former CEO of Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam’s candidacy was also invalidated.
The Constitutional Council, the judge of the presidential election, published the final list of candidates for the presidential election of October 25, 2025, on Monday, September 8, 2025.
The candidacies of Mr. Thiam and Laurent Gbagbo, both of whom were removed from the
electoral roll, were rejected.
Out of 60 candidacies, the Constitutional Council declared five candidates admissible for the elections, including Mr. Jean-Louis Billon, Mr. Ahoua Don-Mello, former First Lady Simone Ehivet, Ms. Henriette Lagou, and Alassane Ouattara, the incumbent president.
Gathered under the Common Front, Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Tidjane Thiam, respectively presidents of the PPA-CI and the PDCI, the two main Ivorian opposition parties, have decided to join forces to protest their “exclusion” from the presidential race.
Elected in 2010, the current head of state, Alassane Ouattara, was re-elected in 2015 and again in 2020.
The Constitutional Council upheld in 2020 that he could run for another term, as the adoption of
a new constitution in 2016 reset the presidential election clock to zero.
The Ivorian opposition describes Alassane Ouattara’s candidacy for a fourth five-year term as unconstitutional.
On Monday, September 8, 2025, the current Constitutional Council did not rule on the fourth
term issue during the announcement of the candidates selected for the presidential election.
Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo reiterated his opposition to a fourth term for Alassane Ouattara on Saturday, August 16, 2025, arguing that the constitution prohibits a citizen from serving more than two terms, during a rally in Yopougon, west of Abidjan.
“I would like all of you who are here to go and tell him that he will not serve a fourth term. We must know that our determination is clear and unequivocal. There will be no fourth term,” Laurent Gbagbo told his supporters.
The PPA-CI/PDCI Joint Front has announced a rally for October 11, 2025, following the cancellation of its October 4, 2025, rally to denounce the electoral process. This rally will be held in Cocody, in eastern Abidjan.
The President of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Ibrahim Coulibaly-Kuibiert, indicated on Thursday, October 9, 2025, that for the campaign, “candidates may organise election rallies and public demonstrations, subject to prior written declaration to the competent administrative authority.”
Mr. Coulibaly-Kuibiert emphasised that candidates may also display campaign posters and other propaganda images, wear clothing with patterns, colours, logos, or images of candidates or political parties, distribute flyers, and use specimen ballots.
“However, the use of administrative vehicles, the publication of polls, insulting or defamatory remarks, or remarks revealing a serious breach of the constitution, and incitement to contempt, hatred, racism, tribalism, and any act constituting a violation of criminal law are prohibited,”
he said.
The electoral campaign begins this Friday, October 10, 2025, at midnight, and ends on Thursday, October 23, 2025, lasting a period of fourteen days.
It is taking place amid political tension surrounding Alassane Ouattara’s candidacy for a fourth term.
AP/fss/as/APA