Recent elections have left the ruling RHDP in a comfortable political position but Tidjane Thiam s ascent in the PDCI has raised the stakes, Unless a yet-to-be-known actor has a spectacular political ascent, the 2025 presidential election will be a contest between the Parti démocratique de Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) on the one hand – the party has begun its recovery from three decades of sclerosis under the stagnant leadership of its former president, the late Henri Konan Bédié – and the Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix (RHDP) on the other.
, Eight years after being transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, and almost two years after his final acquittal for crimes against humanity, Charles Blé Goudé, the once fiery leader of the Jeune Patriotes youth movement, set a measured tone as he returned home to Abidjan on 26 November.
Fruitless dialogue and the violent past of aspiring new leaders raise risks of turmoil despite the country s strong economic base, The country is entering unknown territory, with the three major political parties in various stages of disintegration. The stage is set for a era without the three men who have dominated Ivorian politics since the death of the father of independence, Félix Houphouët-Boigny in 1993.