Ivory Coast Election - 2025 - President
As Ivory Coast heads into a pivotal presidential election, five candidates are competing amid calls for reform and reconciliation in a poll set against lingering political tensions. The next presidential election was scheduled for October 2025. The law provided citizens the ability to choose their government in free and fair periodic elections held by secret ballot and based on universal and equal adult suffrage. Elections in September 2023 for the 201 municipalities and the 31 regions were considered free and fair, and all major political parties participated for the first time in approximately 10 years. Civil society organizations such as COSCEL-CI and CIVIS reported that these elections were generally well-run, with some challenges.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including censorship; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly; serious government corruption; and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.
There were public and private radio and television stations. The government influenced news coverage and program content on some of them. Both independent journalists and journalists affiliated with the state-owned media reported they regularly exercised self-censorship to avoid sanctions or reprisals from government officials. The government appointed some managers of government-affiliated outlets. The National Press Authority (ANP), the government’s print media regulatory body, briefly suspended or reprimanded newspapers and journalists for statements it contended were false, libelous, or perceived to incite xenophobia and hate. Human rights organizations reported the threat of legal action had a chilling effect on media coverage of certain topics, and media often only published stories critical of the government after the same reporting had appeared in international publications.
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on 09 Janurary 2025 he wanted to continue serving his country as president, but stressed that his party had not yet made a formal decision on its candidate for this year's elections. Ouattara, 83, was re-elected to a disputed third term in 2020. He has previously said he wants to step down, but has also indicated he would need a commitment from old rivals to withdraw from politics as well. “I am in good health and eager to continue serving my country,” he said in a speech to the diplomatic corps in Abidjan, the strongest indication yet that he plans to run again.
In September 2024, the ruling party expressed support for Ouattara's possible candidacy in the 2025 elections, scheduled for October, but the nomination and formal acceptance had yet to take place.
President Alassane Ouattara, 83, sought a fourth term after constitutional changes in 2016 reset term limits. A former International Monetary Fund economist, Ouattara is expected to win. Under his leadership, Ivory Coast became one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, buoyed by major infrastructure investments. According to the World Bank, Ivory Coast "has sustained one of the fastest growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa for more than a decade." The World Bank adds that "between 2012 and 2019, real GDP expanded at an average of 8.2%," with growth persisting even through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ouattara's decision to run again for his party, the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace, reignited a familiar debate about term limits and democratic credibility. Several prominent opposition figures had been barred from running: former president Laurent Gbagbo, ex-prime minister Guillaume Soro, former prime minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan of the Ivorian Popular Front, former youth leader Charles Ble Goude and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam. Their exclusion has sparked criticism and raised concerns about the fairness of the electoral process. Thiam, leader of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast – African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA), was seen as Ouattara's strongest challenger but was disqualified for being a French-Ivorian dual national and then removed from the electoral role for being too late in renouncing his French nationality. He has called the election a "coronation," and accused the Ouattara government of abandoning democracy.
Longtime political figure Simone Ehivet Gbagbo of the Movement of Capable Generations party was running on a platform focused on decentralization, education and social reform.
Simone Gbagbo delivered a speech at the first congress of her political movement in Mosso, near the economic capital Abidjan, in which she announced her candidacy for the presidential elections. Simone was arrested at the same time as Laurent Gbagbo in April 2011, after a bloody crisis in the country following his refusal to acknowledge his defeat in the 2010 elections by current President Alassane Ouattara. The clashes between Gbagbo and Ouattara resulted in the deaths of about 3,000 people. In 2015, Simone Gbagbo was sentenced to 20 years in prison for undermining state security, but she benefited from an amnesty law passed in 2018 as part of national reconciliation efforts.
It is noteworthy that Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of Côte d'Ivoire, was the first former head of state to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing crimes against humanity, before it acquitted him of these charges. Laurent Gbagbo's party has also announced its candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, but he is legally ineligible to run due to a 20-year prison sentence for "robbing" the Central Bank of West African States. In 2022, Alassane Ouattara pardoned him, sparing him prison time, but laws prevent convicts from running for election.
Laurent Gbagbo requested a divorce from Simone after returning to Abidjan in 2021 after being acquitted by the International Criminal Court, and their divorce became official in 2023.
Henriette Lagou Adjoua, former minister for women's affairs, is also running. She has pledged stronger legal protections and full implementation of the 30% quota law, which seeks to boost female participation in politics and policy decision-making. "Women are being marginalized," she said. "If I win, gender equality will prevail."
Jean-Louis Billon, a businessman and former minister, told DW he's running because he wants to make Ivory Coast an economically strong nation and help grow the private sector. For him, economic modernization, combating unemployment, reducing inflation and private sector growth are key. "Ivorians want change," he said. "We can achieve change through the election. Let's dare to change. Let's go vote. All of us."
With more than 60% of Ivorians aged under 25 according to the United Nations Population Fund, job creation remains one of the most urgent concerns. Ahoua Don Mello, vice-president of the African People's Party-Cote d'Ivoire, is running as a "precautionary candidate" for banned ex-President Gbagbo, the party leader. His priorities include democratic reform, economic sovereignty and Pan-African integration. "We need an amnesty law, to release political prisoners and restore excluded candidates' rights," he stated.
Though not barred from the vote, these lesser-known candidates are not seen as a threat by the Ouattara government and are not expected to win. The presidential election on October 25 in the West African nation came after a decade of relative stability following the post-electoral crisis of 2010–2011, which left thousands dead and a nation divided. While Ivory Coast, officially known as Cote d' Ivoire, has since enjoyed strong economic growth, deep political fault lines remain.
Regional instability — especially in neighboring Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea— has made security a major issue for the country. In a bid to secure the electoral process the government has launched Operation Hope, deploying 44,000 security personnel and banning protests. While the state has said this aimed to prevent unrest and maintain order throughout the vote, critics have said the move restricts opposition mobilization and public debate.
Amnesty International has criticized the blanket ban on peaceful demonstrations, calling it a violation of civil liberties and democratic norms. Meanwhile, disinformation campaigns from Sahel countries have prompted a government response, including billboards warning "Fake news divides, truth unites." The National Agency for Information Systems Security, Ivory Coast's cybersecurity agency, in August accused social media accounts with tens of thousands of followers from Sahel countries of trying to "incite disorder" after the exclusion of Thiam and other politicians from the polls.
The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has deployed long-term observers to monitor the process and help prevent conflict. As the West Africa region grapples with coups and disputed elections, this election is seen as more than a contest for power — it is a test of Ivory Coast's democratic resilience.
The vote would follow a two-round system: If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote, the election will head to a runoff. The elected president will serve a five-year term, which would allow him or her to shape the country's political direction for the remainder of the decade.
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