The former Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, has finally been removed from the electoral list. This will prevent him to partake in the upcoming presidential elections per an Ivorian judiciary ruling that sees him still in exile.
The president of Independent Electoral Commission, Ibrahim Coulibaly-Kuibiert, announced the news which was recently confirmed during the presentation of the revision of the electoral list at the beginning of August.
“Any person convicted of a misdemeanour or a crime and stripped of their civil rights has been removed from the list,” he said.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “robbery” by the Ivorian courts over the Central Bank of West African States during the post-election crisis of 2010.
He was later acquitted in a court of first instance and has since moved to Brussels in Belgium, Europe on conditional release by the International Criminal Court where he is still awaiting a possible appeal in his home country.
The ex president is hoping to have full right as an Ivorian citizen by recovering his national passport.
The former First Lady and spouse of Laurent Gbagbo, Simone Gbagbo, requested that current Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara pardon her husband of his crimes.
She was found as partner guilty for expressing her disapproval toward the trial which consequently led to this electoral decision.
“The arguments used to justify the removal of Laurent Gbagbo’s name from the electoral list are highly questionable legal arguments. Moreover, the trial that led to this conviction is itself political and unjustifiable,” she explained.
The political climate in Côte d’Ivoire has become tense ten years after the post-election crisis that killed more than 3,000 people. The violence that followed the announcement of President Ouattara’s candidacy for a third term left at least 8 people dead in August.
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