Ivory Coast court clears 5 candidates to run for president

Ivory Coast's Constitutional Council approved five candidates Monday to run in October's presidential election, including incumbent President Alassane Ouattara, while disqualifying former President Laurent Gbagbo and main opposition figure Tidjane Thiam.

The West African nation's top court published the final list of admissible candidacies for the Oct. 25 election, validating five of the 60 applications submitted, the state-run Ivorian Press Agency (AIP) said.

The accepted candidates are Henriette Lagou Adjoua, president of the Group of Political Partners for Peace (GP-PAIX), Jean Louis Eugene Billon of the Democratic Congress (CODE), Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, president of the Movement of Capable Generations (MGC), independent candidate Ahoua Don Mello, and President Alassane Ouattara, representing the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP).

Elected in 2010 and reelected in 2015 and 2020, the 83-year-old Ouattara will run for a fourth term.

The high court rejected the candidacies of former President Laurent Gbagbo, leader of the African Peoples' Party (PPA-CI), citing his criminal record under the Electoral Code, and Tidjane Thiam, head of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI-RDA), due to irregularities in his sponsorship and administrative documents.

Gbagbo was arrested on International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants in 2011 on charges of murder, rape and other crimes but was acquitted by the court in 2019.

Thiam called the candidate selection process "a decisive test" for democracy in a statement, saying Ivorians face an "organized plebiscite of the outgoing president for an unconstitutional fourth term."

He urged an end to "attacks on democracy and the denial of the law."