Ivory Coast: Ex-Rebel Leader Guillaume Soro Says His Candidacy For President Is Irrevocable

Ivory Coast ex-rebel leader and former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro on Thursday said his candidacy for the upcoming election was irrevocable after a court invalidated his bid for the presidency amid rising tensions over incumbent President Alassane Ouattara’s contested bid for re-election next month, reported France 24.

“My candidacy is firm, unchangeable and irrevocable,” Soro told journalists in Paris.

He added that Ivory Coast was “on the brink” since President Ouattara’s decision to seek a third term in office. He defiantly declared he would remain a candidate in the polls even as he lashed out against what he called a scheme to enshrine the 78-year-old Ouattara as president.

Soro urged the country’s opposition parties to unite against Ouattara even as he insisted that the October 31 presidential poll does not make any sense and which, if successful, would amount to a “coup d’etat”.

The former rebel leader’s statement came after Ivory Coast’s Constitutional Court validated Ouattara’s candidacy bid but rejected both Soro and former President Laurent Gbagbo on the grounds that they had been handed jail terms in absentia.

On Tuesday the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights called on the Ivorian authorities to allow Soro to contest the vote. But, the Ivory Coast government said it will not recognize the African Court’s ruling that allowed Soro to contest in the upcoming presidential election.

Government spokesperson Sidi Tiemoko Toure said the government only recognizes the country’s constitutional court’s decision that barred Soro from the elections as he was sentenced in April to 20 years in prison for concealment of embezzlement of public funds.

 There are currently only four candidates in the highly anticipated October 31 election.

Ouattara had announced earlier this year that he would not seek a third term but he agreed to contest again after his preferred successor, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died of a heart attack in July.