Supporters of former Cote d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo said on Wednesday that they would file for candidacy in his name for the October polls.
The announcement comes a day after an Ivorian court confirmed the decision to strike off the former leader from the electoral list due to a 20-year prison sentence.
The President Of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert said back in August that anyone convicted of a crime would be struck from the list of candidates.
According to a pro-Gbagbo coalition called Together for Democracy and Sovereignty, it will submit the ex-president’s candidacy, in line with scheduled procedures.
However, a court in the country confirmed a day earlier that the decision of the country’s electoral commission to strike-off Gbagbo from the electoral list, his lawyer told AFP Tuesday. “It’s a definitive no,” Claude Mentenon told AFP, adding that there was no further legal recourse inside Cote d’Ivoire.
Election officials had already rejected appeals by Gbagbo and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro to compete in the October presidential polls in which the incumbent Alassane Ouattara is running for re-election.
