President Ouattara to run for fourth term in October election

Côte d” d'Ivoire's President Alassane Ouattara last Tuesday in a televised address announced his intention to run for a fourth term in the nation's presidential election slated for October 25, saying both his health and the country’s Constitution permitted him to serve another term.

Ouattara, 83, who has been in power since 2010, said in his announcement that the country was facing “unprecedented security, economic, and monetary challenges” and he believed the management of this situation required someone with experience like himself.

Presidential terms

Côte d’Ivoire’s constitution allows every President to serve for a two-term, five-year term each; however, after serving his two terms, Ouattara removed presidential term limits in 2016 by changing the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term in the 2020 polls, citing exceptional circumstances to justify his candidacy.

He was then re-elected for a contested third term in 2020, where he repeated said he would like to step down after his third term for the younger generation to take over, independent of the change of the constitution.

Ouattara is the latest leader in West and Central Africa to attempt to stay in power with little or no challenge from a weakened opposition as the leaders of the two main opposition parties, Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) leader, Tidjane Thiam, and former President Laurent Gbagbo, who leads the African People's Party of Ivory Coast (PPACI), have been barred from standing, meaning Ouattara could again win by a comfortable margin.

Power-hungry leaders

In recent times, Togo’s current President, Faure Gnassingbé, has been in power since 2005 after taking over following the death of his father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who had ruled Togo for nearly four decades.

Faure Gnassingbé has been re-elected multiple times, and a recent constitutional change allows him to potentially remain in power until 2030.

His family has effectively ruled Togo for 58 years, including his father's long reign.

Having swapped the presidential system for a parliamentary system and introduced a new, all-powerful role.

Meanwhile, in Cameroon, President Paul Biya, who is 92 years old and the world’s oldest serving head of state, is eyeing an eighth term in this year’s presidential election slated for October 12 after being in power since 1982, nearly half his lifetime.

“I am a candidate in the presidential election,” he wrote.

“Rest assured that my determination to serve you matches the urgency of the challenges we face.”

Eighth term

Biya, who is seeking an eighth term that could keep him in office until he is nearly 100, came to power more than four decades ago in 1982, when his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo, resigned.

His health is the subject of frequent speculation, most recently last year when he disappeared from public view for 42 days. His re-election bid had been widely anticipated but not formally confirmed until Sunday’s social media post.

While the Central African Republic’s Faustin Touadera is seeking a third term amid a constitutional controversy, a referendum held in 2023 saw a large majority vote for constitutional changes that enabled the president to run for a third term.

The new law abolished the two-term limit and extended the presidential mandate from five to seven years.

Now, the opposition and civil society organisations fear the 68-year-old Touadera could stay in power for life.

President Quattara

Côte d’Ivoire’s President Ouattara's decision to seek re-election in October means the world's top cocoa-producing nation will again have to wait on his promise to pass the baton to a new generation of political leaders.

Justifying why he decided to go back on his earlier promise not to seek another term, he said, "Duty sometimes transcends a promise that was made in good faith."

"This is why, after thoughtful consideration, and in all conscience, I'm announcing today that I've decided to be a candidate in the presidential election of October 25, 2025," Ouattara said.

But the 83-year-old former international banker is hoping a strong economy and a weak field of challengers will propel him to a fourth term, extending a period of relative stability after the civil war that brought him to power in 2011.

Economist

Ouattara, a US-trained economist whose resume includes stints as governor of the West African central bank (BCEAO) and deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has long pitched himself as a savvy technocrat capable of delivering steady growth.

The numbers back him up, with the IMF projecting GDP to increase to 6.3 per cent this year, in line with the average over the past decade and has also proved himself to be a deft political operator, striking deals that have eased his two previous re-election bids and avoided a repeat of the widespread violence that followed his election win over predecessor Laurent Gbagbo in late 2010.

Gbagbo's refusal to accept defeat in that contest triggered a brief civil war that killed more than 3,000 people and only ended with his arrest in a bunker at his Abidjan residence.

Ouattara's "primary success has been on the macroeconomic side" and restoring Cote d’Ivoire’s "international influence," a political analyst, Arthur Banga, said and was quick to add that  "there are still democratic challenges to overcome," citing lingering fears of election-related violence.

"This means there is work to be done to achieve normalcy."

Brief background

Born in Dimbokro in central Côte d’Ivoire on January 1, 1942, Ouattara received a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and earned a reputation for competent economic management as Prime Minister under founding President, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, whose name evokes decades of agricultural export-led prosperity that built palm-lined boulevards and skyscrapers.

Houphouet-Boigny's death in 1993, combined with economic challenges related to structural adjustment and the devaluation of the regional currency, gave rise to a more toxic period in Ivorian politics, which was followed by a coup in 1999. Ouattara was excluded from running for President the following year because one of his parents was from Burkina Faso.

Gbagbo, who won that election, called Ouattara "a candidate for the foreigners".

2002 rebellion

However, a 2002 rebellion against Gbagbo split the country into two, leaving its northern half in the hands of rebels, many of them from Ouattara's Dioula ethnic group and the war was largely a result of xenophobic policies by successive Ivorian governments against migrant farmers from Burkina Faso and Mali that also targeted northern Ivorians with cultural ties to them.

To win the 2010 election, Ouattara formed a pact with former President Henri Konan Bedie that helped him secure his victory in the runoff against Gbagbo.

Five years later, with Gbagbo awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Ouattara reaffirmed his alliance with Bedie,  and coasted to re-election with 83 per cent of votes cast.

In 2020, Ouattara initially vowed not to run again, but he went back on that after his preferred successor, then-Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died several months later.

Ouattara argued that the new constitution approved in 2016 reset his two-term limit, though his opponents disagreed and boycotted the elections.

Clashes between rival supporters before and after the 2020 vote led to the deaths of 85 people.