(Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who had been hand-picked by President Alassane Ouattara to succeed him later this year, has died. He was 61.

Gon Coulibaly died Wednesday, Patrick Achi, secretary-general in the presidency, said in a statement on national television.

His death leaves the ruling party of Africa’s biggest cocoa producer with four months to nominate a successor to the outgoing president. The world’s top cocoa producer is headed for its most tense election since Ouattara took over the reins in 2011, following five months of post-electoral violence that left at least 3,000 people dead or missing.

Gon Coulibaly died less than a week after returning from a two-month trip to France to receive medical treatment. He’d traveled regularly to France since having heart surgery in 2012 and his most recent visit included an operation to have a stent inserted.

The ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace party nominated Gon Coulibaly as its presidential candidate in March. The party’s executive director earlier this month said there was no “plan B” despite his prolonged hospitalization in Paris.

One of Ouattara’s most trusted aides, Coulibaly served as agriculture minister from 2002 to 2010 and as secretary general of the presidency from 2011 until his 2017 appointment as prime minister. During his recent medical leave, Defense Minister Hamed Bakayoko served as acting premier.

(Corrects spelling of president’s surname in first paragraph.)

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