The former Ivorian president, Laurent Gbagbo, does not appear on the electoral list published on Saturday May 20 by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI); which means he will not be able to vote in the upcoming local elections on September 2.
This situation suggests that the former leader remains under his sentence of 20 years in prison in Côte d’Ivoire for the robbery of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) in 2011 (during post-election crisis).
His acquittal by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes against humanity committed during the bloody post-election crisis of 2010-2011, as well as the pardon granted to him by his successor Alassane Ouattara, in early August 2022, in this case , have not changed anything in relation to his civil and political rights.
Laurent Gbagbo’s party, the African Peoples’ Party-Côte d’Ivoire (PPA-CI), which deplored this situation, had already stressed in the past that this presidential pardon was insufficient. The political formation and Gbagbo himself demanded an amnesty which could erase the sentence.
A PPA-CI executive stressed that the removal of Gbagbo is an “unfair” decision which “calls into question the credibility of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI)” and which causes the electoral process to lose “its credibility”.
The President of the Electoral Commission, Kuibiert Coulibaly, for his part, assured that “we are not going after Laurent Gbagbo. The IEC only executes what the law says”.
By OMA Newsletter N° 1181 of 05/22/2023
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
