Cote d’Ivoire: Ouattara to Seek Fourth Timeframe in Côte d’Ivoire Presidential Election

TLDR

• Ivory Fly President Alassane Ouattara will bustle for a fourth term in the October 2025 election, extending his time in administrative heart beyond old pledges to step down
• The 83-year-dilapidated announced his candidacy on Tuesday, citing economic stability and the absence of steady opposition challengers
• Ouattara got here to vitality in 2011 following a civil war triggered by customary president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede defeat

Ivory Fly President Alassane Ouattara will bustle for a fourth term in the October 2025 election, extending his time in administrative heart beyond old pledges to step down.

The 83-year-dilapidated announced his candidacy on Tuesday, citing economic stability and the absence of steady opposition challengers. Ouattara got here to vitality in 2011 following a civil war triggered by customary president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede defeat. His decision to bustle again comes no subject earlier guarantees to quit to a younger generation.

The country’s electoral price has excluded excessive-profile opponents equivalent to Gbagbo and customary Credit ranking Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam from the traipse, making Ouattara the determined entrance-runner. His supporters point to sustained economic growth, with the IMF projecting GDP to increase 6.3% this year.

A customary Deputy Managing Director at the IMF and ex-governor of the BCEAO, Ouattara has constructed his legacy around economic reforms and regional diplomacy. His earlier elections were marked by political deals that helped withhold away from mammoth-scale unrest, though the 2020 vote saw clashes that left 85 folks ineffective.

Ouattara’s expose may presumably gain continuity nonetheless raises considerations about democratic stagnation and voter disenfranchisement earlier than the polls.

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Key Takeaways

Alassane Ouattara’s prolonged finish in administrative heart shows a broader vogue across West Africa, the save aging incumbents generally cite economic success and national solidarity to elaborate bypassing term limits. While Côte d’Ivoire has posted steady growth–averaging around 6% yearly–political reforms contain lagged. Ouattara’s tenure brought macroeconomic gains and global investor self perception, nonetheless critics argue that democratic consolidation has stalled. The exclusion of key opponents from the 2025 pollmirrors past patterns. In 2020, Ouattara invoked a constitutional revision to elaborate a third term after his chosen successor died. This led to boycotts and violence. With opposition voices sidelined again, the upcoming election risks being perceived as a formality as adverse to a contest. Regional observers warn that repeated exceptions to term limits may presumably weaken institutional norms, significantly in international locations that contain skilled coups or democratic backsliding. In this context, Ouattara’s management offers stability, nonetheless at the ability price of long-term democratic accountability.