Ivory Coast: Ex-banker becomes top contender in October election
Prospective Presidential candidate Tidjane Thiam has renounced his French citizenship as the ex-banker looks set to become a top contender in the October election.
Former CEO of Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam has asked to surrender his French passport, and thus, be relieved of his French citizenship, reported by Reuters on March 20th, paving the way for his presidential campaign.
Thiam was elected leader of the opposition PDCI party in 2023 but Article 55 of the Ivorian Constitution states the President must be of only Ivorian citizenship. A decision released by France’s official journal on March 20th stated Thiam had been “released from his allegiance to France.”
Despite the announcement, challenges remain against Thiam’s presidential ambitions. Reuters reported that court documents have argued his election as party president are void because he held French nationality at the time. Despite the party stating it is not a requirement to have sole Ivorian citizenship to be elected party leader, the case has been adjourned until April, meaning Thiam may not know if he can run in the election until after that case has been settled.
The notion of Ivorian identity “was at the heart of the civil war, and some fear lingering questions over Thiam’s nationality in the run-up to the vote risk pushing those tensions back to the surface.”
Tensions stem partially from the conflict which emerged following the election between Gbagbo and current-president Ouattara. Gbagbo presented himself as the “man who stood up to interference by Paris, the African who plays by African rules and not those of the Western outsider” whilst painting Ouattara as a puppet of former colonial power, France.
The West African nation was plagued by violence with over 3000 people left dead after Gbagbo refused to concede defeat.
Ouattara eventually managed to oust Gbagbo and rejected the presentation of himself as a protégé of Paris or Washington, despite suggestions that France heavily assisted his ousting of the former president.
In 2020, 85 people were killed when the election in which Ouattara won a third term was challenged.
Fears of a president with allegiance to France rather than the Ivorian people runs deep in the Ivory Coast’s psyche and so questions over Thiam’s citizenship pose threats to the peace and stability of the world’s leading cocoa exporter.
The Ivory Coast, whilst a relatively diplomatic relationship with Paris has held, has sought to distance themselves from their former colonial power, demonstrated by their request for the French military to leave and hand over their last military base back to the Ivory Coast armed forces as part of a wider, regional transformation in West Africa’s relationship with France.
However, the coalition that Thiam has managed to form of twenty-five opposition parties to push demands for electoral reform and political dialogue signals a drive for transparency within the electoral system, providing legitimacy to Thiam’s image publicly.
The new coalition includes the PDCI, led by Thiam, along with the Movement of Capable Generations (MGC) of former first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo. They are arguing that the electoral commission is too closely aligned with the existing government which has won multiple consecutive terms.
It seems likely that Thiam will continue to campaign as part of his presidential bid even whilst the court waits to decide if it is even legal for him to run. The results of the opposition coalition’s call for reform waits to be seen.
Reuters, AFP, Maghrebi, BBC
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