Credit: ©ICC/CPI / Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo at International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands

By Gary  Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights called on Abidjan officials to restore former president Laurent Gbagbo to the electoral list of candidates for the upcoming presidential elections in west African nation Côte d’Ivoire.  Last month,  an Ivorian judicial  ruling  banned  Gbagbo  from the electoral  list for the October 31 elections. Gbagbo has been living in Belgium after being acquitted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last year.  Gbagbo has applied for a passport so that he can return home to Ivory Coast ahead presidential elections. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is based in Arusha in Tanzania,  appealed  to Ivory Coast Friday to “take all necessary steps to immediately remove all obstacles” preventing Gbagbo from being added to the electoral roll.  The ACHPR request is likely to be ignored, as  Ivory Coast  withdrew its recognition of the court’s jurisdiction in April this year. A pro-Gbagbo coalition called Together for Democracy and Sovereignty (EDS)  submitted Gbagbo’s candidacy despite the Ivorian action to exclude the former president.    Political tensions in the west African nation have been growing ever since incumbent President Alassane Ouattara declared his candidacy for a third term earlier this month.   The decision outraged many opponents.

African Court Also Urging Ivory Coast To Restore exiled  opposition leader Guillaume Soro to the electoral list of candidates

Exiled Ivory Coast opposition leader Guillaume Soro

Ivory Coast has also barred former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, a 47-year-old former Ouattara ally and rebel commander who helped the president come to power in 2011, from the list of candidates.  Last week, the ACHPR called on Ivory Coast officials to restore Sore to the list.

Soro has called on France President Emmanuel Macron to take a stand against Alassane Ouattara, the outgoing president of Côte d’Ivoire who is seeking a third term while the constitution limits to two the number of terms.  Soro was invalidated Monday as a candidate by the Constitutional Council because of a conviction.   In April, Soro, a high-profile  organizer of  “the resistance”  to President  Ouattara, was  sentenced to 20 years in jail on charges of embezzlement and money laundering.  An Ivory Coast court handed down the sentence to Soro which included a fine of seven million euros.  Soro was tried in absentia as he currently lives in Paris.  Soro  has steadfastly denied all of the  charges against him, saying the are “trumped up”  designed to keep him from participating in the country’s scheduled presidential elections.  The ACHPR has asked Abidjan  to “stay the execution” of the sentence of  Soro, and to restore  him to the electoral rolls.  Lors d’une conférence de presse organisée dans les salons d’un grand hôtel parisien, l’ancien président du Parlement a réaffirmé qu’il maintenait sa candidature de manière « ferme, irréductible et irrévocable ». -Le Monde. 

“When the judges are not corrupt like those in my country, they say the law and give it back its glory. The judges of the African Court have ruled. Therefore I reaffirm my candidacy for the presidential election of October 2020 in my country.”

-Guillaume Soro  via Twitter