The fate of Guillaume Soro, candidate excluded from the presidential election by the Ivorian Constitutional Council on Monday, is not sealed.

The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), a jurisdiction with which Abidjan has distanced itself, asked Côte d'Ivoire on Tuesday (September 15th) to allow the former rebel leader and former Prime Minister to run for president on October 31.

The ACHPR "orders the State to take all necessary measures in order to immediately remove all obstacles preventing Guillaume Soro from enjoying his rights to be elected and to be elected in particular during the presidential election of October 2020", according to the text of the ordinance published on its website, while the Ivorian Constitutional Council ruled Guillaume Soro's candidacy "inadmissible" on Monday.

>> To read: Presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire: the opposition wind up against the Constitutional Council

Côte d'Ivoire "withdrew its declaration of jurisdiction" from the Court, whose seat is in Arusha, in April 2020 and in fact has lost interest in its decisions since.

This withdrawal was made precisely after the Court ordered a stay of legal proceedings against Guillaume Soro, who had seized it.

40 applications rejected

On Monday, the Ivorian Constitutional Council refused 40 of the 44 candidacies for the presidential election in October, including those of Guillaume Soro or former President Laurent Gbagbo.

On the other hand, she validated the candidacy for a controversial third term of the outgoing president, Alassane Ouattara.  

Guillaume Soro was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for "concealment of embezzlement of public funds".

He is also accused of "attempted insurrection".

Abidjan had accused the court of undermining "the sovereignty of Côte d'Ivoire, the authority and the functioning of justice" and "undermining the bases of the rule of law by the establishment of a real legal uncertainty ".

The fear of deadly violence

Seized by the opposition, the African Court also asked Côte d'Ivoire last year to reform its electoral commission in view of the presidential election. 

The authorities had been very slow before implementing a reform criticized by the opposition, which had again referred to the Court.

On Tuesday, the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire of former President Henri Konan Bédié, whose candidacy has been validated and which promises to be President Ouattara's main opponent, said on Tuesday that it will not participate in the elections of offices of local electoral commissions, September 15.

For months, the opposition has questioned the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), accusing it of being subservient to power.   

The fear of deadly violence in the run-up to the October 31 election is strong, ten years after the crisis born of the 2010 presidential election, which left 3,000 dead after President Laurent Gbagbo refused to acknowledge his electoral defeat against Alassane Ouattara

With AFP

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