Ivory Coast Leader Signals That He’s Mulling a Fourth Term

Baudelaire Mieu and Yinka Ibukun
·1-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said he would consider seeking a fourth term in office later this year if his party backed his candidacy.

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“I’m in good health and eager to serve my country,” the 83-year-old Ouattara said Thursday at an event in Abidjan, the commercial capital, televised by state broadcaster RTI. “As of today, I have not yet made a decision.”

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Ouattara’s ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace party said last year that it wanted him to be its candidate in October 2025 elections.

The party in May said Ouattara was its “natural candidate” in the 2025 presidential elections.

Under Ivory Coast law, presidents are only allowed to serve two terms, but Ouattara’s RHDP has argued that a new constitution adopted in 2016 wiped his slate clean — an assertion upheld by the country’s top judicial body in 2020.

Ouattara won a third term in October of that year, securing 94% of the vote after the opposition boycotted the contest.

--With assistance from Katarina Höije.

(Adds party comment in fourth graph.)

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