Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, still removed from the electoral list published Saturday, will not be able to vote in local elections scheduled for September 2, a decision described as "unacceptable provocation" by his party. While Laurent Gbagbo was acquitted by international justice of crimes against humanity committed during the bloody post-election crisis of 2010-2011, he remains under a 20-year prison sentence in Côte d'Ivoire for the "robbery" of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) in 2011.
This sentence, pronounced in 2018 while he was imprisoned in The Hague, had led to the forfeiture of his civil and political rights and therefore his removal from the electoral rolls. And the pardon granted by President Alassane Ouattara last year in this case does not change this status.
An "unfair" decision
This Saturday, during the publication of the electoral list in Abidjan, Sébastien Dano Djédjé, a senior member of the Party of African Peoples-Côte d'Ivoire (PPA-CI), the party of Laurent Gbagbo, denounced an "unfair" decision. "This calls into question the credibility of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The electoral process is losing credibility," he added, before leaving the ceremony with the party's delegation. "We are not going after Laurent Gbagbo. There is a court decision that is not the work of the CIS. The IEC only executes what the law says," responded the president of the commission, Kuibiert Coulibaly, adding that "11,000 people" were deprived of their civil and political rights.
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This Saturday afternoon, the PPA-CI held a press conference to denounce an "unacceptable provocation". "Such stubbornness on the part of the Ivorian regime poses serious risks to peace and social cohesion," said Justin Koné Katinan, spokesman for Laurent Gbagbo's party. This non-inclusion on the electoral list "constitutes a casus belli", he added. The PPA-CI relies in particular on a decision of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights which had ordered in 2020 the reinstatement of the former Ivorian president on the electoral list.
The party authorities will meet soon to study possible appeals. Claims can be made to the IEC until June 8. After the 2020 presidential election, which saw the re-election of Alassane Ouattara for a controversial third term and where violence left 85 dead and 500 injured, Côte d'Ivoire has experienced a period of calming of the political climate.
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The 2021 legislative elections were held peacefully and former President Laurent Gbagbo was able to return to Côte d'Ivoire in June 2021, after his acquittal by the ICC. On two occasions, he had even met President Ouattara to "defuse the climate" Ivorian politics. But recent weeks have been marked by tensions between the two opposing camps during the 2010-2011 post-election crisis that left 3,000 dead.
The PPA-CI accused the government of "instrumentalizing justice" after the arrest in February of 26 of its activists for "disturbing public order" on the sidelines of a demonstration in Abidjan. Sentenced at first instance to two years in prison, they received a two-year suspended sentence on appeal. Some eight million voters are being called to ballot on 2nd September next in Côte d'Ivoire to renew the municipal and regional councils. The next presidential election is to be held in 2025.