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.