Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé excluded from provisional electoral list

The names of former president Laurent Gbagbo and his former youth minister, Charles Blé Goudé, are absent from the provisional electoral list 2024-2025 published this Monday, March 17, 2025 by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI).

The Ivorian authorities justify the exclusion of Gbagbo and Blé Goudé by their judicial convictions. The former head of state was sentenced to twenty years in prison for the “BCEAO robbery” during the 2010-2011 post-electoral crisis.

For his part, Charles Blé Goudé has been sentenced to the same term since December 30, 2019. In addition to this sentence, he has been deprived of his civil rights for ten years and must pay 200 million CFA francs in damages to the victims of the 2011 crisis.

The CEI points out that the publication of this list marks the start of the electoral dispute process. Voters may lodge complaints concerning registration, deletion or correction of information on the list. Anyone who has been omitted from the list or who has regained his or her civic rights may submit a request for regularization.