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· Party of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo- The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI)- will now onwards take part in legislative elections
· The party has been boycotting the elections for the last 10 years
Party of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo- The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI)- will now onwards take part in legislative elections. The party has been boycotting the elections for the last 10 years.
The decision towards that was taken by the central committee of the party at its recent meeting. The move coincides with efforts to scale down a months-long crisis sparked by President Alassane Ouattara’s decision to seek a third term. The opposition termed this as
unconstitutional.
The FPI, which was in power under Gbagbo from 2000 to 2010, had boycotted all elections after its chief was arrested in 2011 and transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). He was acquitted in 2019, and remains free pending the outcome of an appeal.
On December 4, Gbagbo’s attorney said he had obtained an ordinary passport and a diplomatic one. The party is split into a pro-Gbagbo faction and another headed by his former prime minister, Pascal Affi N’Guessan. He and several other opposition leaders are in custody on charges of treason for seeking to set up a “transitional” government after the elections.