(Bloomberg) -- Former Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam aims to return the opposition to power in presidential elections scheduled for 2025 after winning a bid to lead the Ivorian opposition party. 

Results of a vote announced late Friday showed the 61-year old former banker convincingly defeating his sole opponent to lead the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, which ruled the West African nation for decades after independence in 1960 but has been out of power since 1999.

“2025 will be a crucial election year for our party,” Thiam said after he was sworn in as the party’s third president. “We will work tirelessly to make our party an even more present and more effective force on the ground, our best asset for returning to power in 2025.”

The victory puts him in a strong position to represent PDCI in the polls, although he will still face an internal election to become the party’s candidate. 

“We have been in opposition for 25 years,” Kouame Yao, a civil servant, said by phone from the commercial capital, Abidjan, before the vote. “PDCI needs a shakeup. Thiam has the qualities to revive and reinforce the party.”

Ivory Coast, the world’s top producer of cocoa, has endured two civil wars since the PDCI left power. But more recently it’s emerged as an African economic success story, averaging almost 6% annual growth in gross domestic product following the restoration of peace in 2011.

Even so, while living standards have improved, almost 40% of the population of 28 million live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

“We face crucial challenges that need leadership,” Thiam told supporters in Yamoussoukro as he launched his campaign on Dec. 9. “We will have to work for a peaceful, prosperous Ivory Coast.”

Thiam, who left Ivory Coast following a 1999 coup, faced party veteran Jean-Marc Yace, the current mayor of Abidjan’s Cocody neighborhood, a PDCI stronghold. Thiam beat him soundly, collecting almost 97% of the votes cast. Voter participation was 64%, the tally showed. 

Three other candidates dropped out of the race ahead of the vote. One of them, businessman and former Cocody mayor, Noel Akossi Bendjo, threw his support behind Thiam.

Yace knew the field, having remained in Ivory Coast as Thiam pursued a career abroad. But Thiam picked the right moment to return, said Severin Kouame, a sociology professor at the Alassane Ouattara University.

“The party had just lost its leader and there was no immediate successor,” Kouame said by phone from the northern city of Bouake. “At the same time, there was a call for renewal and a new leadership.” 

The 2025 elections remain open, Kouame said. “Thiam’s win points to a change in the political landscape. It’s no longer enough to trace your party lineage to country’s founding father. You need to show the electorate what you have to offer and then get them to vote.” 

Thiam’s mother was a niece of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the country’s first president after independence. 

For his own part, Thiam has highlighted his leadership skills in posts at Aviva Plc, Prudential Plc and at Credit Suisse, where he became the first Black executive to lead a European bank.

“We’re a team, and our success will depend on our collaboration and our common determination,” Thiam said on Saturday. “I commit to working closely with each and everyone of you. We need everyone and we will call on everyone.”

Thiam left the Swiss lender following an espionage scandal in 2020.

Critics have accused Thiam of being estranged from his native Ivory Coast. He holds both French and Ivorian citizenship and would have to give up the former if he runs for president, something he’s said he’s prepared to do.

He’s also decisively younger than other political leaders. Incumbent President Alassane Ouattara will turn 83 in 2025, should he decide to seek a fourth term.

The two men have similar trajectories. Ouattara moved from a career in international banking at the International Monetary Fund to politics while Thiam has floated between the private sector and public service.

He held posts in President Henri Konan Bédié’s administration between 1994 and 1999, leading the National Bureau for Technical Studies and Development and also becoming Minister of Planning and Development.

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