(Bloomberg) -- Ex-Trade Minister Jean-Louis Billon said he will seek the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast’s support to be its presidential candidate in next year’s elections.
Billon would be challenging the PDCI leader and former Credit Suisse Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam for the nomination. Billon, 59, was previously the head of Ivory Coast’s top agro-industrial group SIFCA and served as trade minister under current President Alassane Ouattara.
“I’m running to win,” Billon said in a statement.
Thiam, who convincingly won a bid to lead the PDCI at a congress in 2023, earlier this year told Paris-based newspaper Le Monde that he will seek the party’s nomination to run for president at a forthcoming convention.
Ex-Credit Suisse CEO Signals He’ll Run for Ivory Coast President
Politics in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa grower, has been dominated for more than two decades by two men. Ouattara, 82, and former leader Laurent Gbagbo, 79.
Gbagbo, who returned to Ivory Coast in 2021 following his acquittal of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accepted his party’s nomination as its presidential candidate in May.
Ouattara, who has yet to announce whether he will seek a fourth five-year term, is being pushed to run by his ruling Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace.
Ivorian Ruling Party Paves Way for President to Seek Fourth Term
He pardoned Gbagbo in 2022 from a 20-year prison sentence for looting the Abidjan-branch of the regional central bank without restoring his civic rights, which he needs to take part in next year’s vote.
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