Overview

• Tidjane Thiam, leader of the opposition PDCI party, has been officially disqualified from running in Ivory Coast's October 2025 presidential election.
• The court determined that Thiam forfeited his Ivorian citizenship when he became a French national in 1987, citing Article 48 of the Ivorian Nationality Code.
• Thiam renounced his French citizenship earlier this year in an effort to meet eligibility requirements but was still deemed ineligible by the court.
• The ruling is final and cannot be appealed, marking the latest in a series of judicial decisions removing prominent figures from the electoral process.
• Thiam condemned the decision as politically motivated, accusing the ruling party of manipulating the judiciary to suppress opposition voices.