President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire, 83, announced on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, that he will seek a fourth term in the upcoming October 25 election, a decision that intensifies political tensions given the exclusion of numerous opposition candidates.
Ouattara, who has led the West African nation since 2011, is widely expected to win.
Having already been nominated by his ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party, Ouattara waited until Tuesday to confirm his candidacy.
He defended his decision by stating, “I am a candidate because the constitution of our country allows me to run for another term and my health permits it.”
He added that the world’s top cocoa producer is “facing unprecedented security, economic, and monetary challenges, the management of which requires experience.”
The opposition, however, argues that a fourth term for Ouattara would be unconstitutional. While Ouattara has steered Ivory Coast to relative stability in a turbulent region prone to military coups over the past decade, critics accuse him of consolidating power and using the judiciary to exclude opponents.
The government, conversely, maintains that the judiciary acts independently.
The two main opposition parties, the African People’s Party of Ivory Coast (PPACI) — led by former president Laurent Gbagbo — and the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI), headed by former international banker Tidjane Thiam, have launched a joint campaign demanding the reinstatement of their barred leaders.
Gbagbo, his former aide Charles Ble Goude, and ex-prime minister Guillaume Soro have been removed from the electoral register due to criminal convictions. Thiam was also excluded by the judiciary over nationality issues.
Thiam reacted strongly, stating that “The announcement made today by Mr Ouattara constitutes a violation of our constitution and a new attack on democracy.”
His lawyer, Mathias Chichportich, informed AFP that a United Nations human rights committee had called for Ivory Coast to allow Thiam to “exercise his political rights” and run in the upcoming vote.
Similarly, Damana Pickass of Gbagbo’s party told the press that Ouattara’s mandate was “unconstitutional.” Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who plans to challenge Ouattara for the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), labeled it “a candidacy as illegal as his third.”
Critics had previously questioned the legality of Ouattara’s third mandate, as the law limited him to two terms until a new constitution adopted in 2016 controversially reset the term counter to zero.
The opposition boycotted the 2020 vote, which Ouattara won by a landslide, leading to unrest that claimed at least 85 lives.
Ouattara’s political career includes working at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the West African regional bank BCEAO.
He entered politics when founding president Felix Houphouet-Boigny appointed him to lead an economic recovery body.
After Houphouet-Boigny’s death in 1993, Ouattara was involved in a brief power struggle before joining the IMF.
In 1995, he aimed to run for president under the Rally of the Republicans (RDR) party but was barred due to new laws requiring candidates’ parents to be Ivorian-born and for candidates to have continuously lived in Cote d’Ivoire prior to an election.
He faced similar exclusion in 2000. A failed coup two years later sparked a civil war that split the country into a rebel-held, predominantly Muslim north (where Ouattara drew much support) and a government-controlled Christian-majority south.
After experiencing violence during the unrest, Ouattara left the country but returned to contest the 2010 election.
The refusal of then-president Gbagbo to concede electoral defeat led to further unrest, claiming over 3,000 lives, before Ouattara ultimately became president in 2011.
Gbagbo, though acquitted of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, still faces a conviction in Cote d’Ivoire related to the post-election crisis that ended his rule.
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