Ivorian justice has confirmed the removal from the electoral lists of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), AFP learned from his lawyer on Tuesday. “The president of the tribunal endorsed the decision to remove President Laurent Gbagbo from the electoral list. It's a definitive no, there is no longer any recourse at the national level , ” Laurent Gbagbo's lawyer, Me Claude Mentenon, told AFP.
Read also: The acquittal of Laurent Gbagbo challenged on appeal
The former president but also the former rebel leader and ex-Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, the ex-leader of the Young Patriots, Charles Blé Goudé, and the opponent Akossi Bendjo, former mayor of the Plateau district in Abidjan, contested their absence of electoral lists posted in polling stations in early August. Relatives of Soro, who claims to be a presidential candidate on October 31 despite living in exile in France, challenged the decision in the Korhogo court but are still awaiting an answer, we learned from those around him.
"Anyone sentenced for an offense or a crime to deprivation of their civil rights was removed from the lists during the revision", explained Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert, the president of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) during the presentation of the revision of the electoral list at the beginning of August. The four men, who live abroad, have all been sentenced by Ivorian courts. Acquitted at first instance by the International Criminal Court, Laurent Gbagbo lives in Brussels awaiting a possible appeal, but he was sentenced by the Ivorian courts to 20 years in prison for the “robbery” of the Central Bank of the States of 'West Africa during the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011.
The former first lady of Côte d'Ivoire, Simone Gbagbo, asked Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara on August 11 to “ grant amnesty” to her husband Laurent. “The arguments used to justify the removal of Laurent Gbagbo's name from the electoral list are very questionable legal arguments. Moreover, the trial which led to this conviction is itself political and unjustifiable, ” said Simone Gbagbo. Guillaume Soro, who declared himself a presidential candidate, was sentenced by Ivorian justice to 20 years in prison for "concealment of embezzlement of public funds" and is the subject of a procedure for "attempted insurrection ". The climate has become tense in Côte d'Ivoire, ten years after the post-electoral crisis which killed more than 3,000. Violence that followed the announcement of President Ouattara's candidacy for a third term killed at least 8 people in August.
