Former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo will not be running for President this year after his party named a new candidate.
The party picked his former prime minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan as its candidate for the October presidential vote.
“I am a winning candidate and we will win,” N’Guessan told members of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party ahead of their vote for his candidacy. “I’m a man of peace and reconciliation.”Gbagbo lives in Belgium after being acquitted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court last year.
Ever since Gbagbo was released from custody with reports that he might return from abroad, it has been speculated that he might run for president again.
With his party picking a new candidate, Gbagbo surely will not be running for office this October.
The decision to pick another candidate also might have been facilitated by the refusal of Ivorian authorities to issue him with travel documents.
The ruling party is still without a candidate after the sudden death of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who was the preferred successor of President Alassane Ouattara.
President Ouattara has been nominated by his part to seek a third term even though he decided not to run again.
He has asked for time to think about the request from his party with his decision crucial for the stability of his party.
Source: Africafeeds.com