ABIDJAN (Reuters) – An Ivorian court has suspended the elective congress of the country’s main opposition party, at which former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam is among the presidential candidates.
The court of first instance in the capital Abidjan on Friday ordered the suspension of the congress, which was scheduled for Saturday to elect a new leader of the Democratic Party before the 2025 presidential election.
This decision follows an urgent request from two senior members of the party who denounce opacity and irregularities in the organization of the congress, according to court documents seen by Reuters.
The procedure did not directly target Tidjane Thiam, but the plaintiffs said that, a day before the congress, they did not have the names of the candidates preselected for the presidency or the names of the party members who would vote.
The court granted their request and ordered the postponement of the congress.
The winner of the race to lead the Democratic Party, known by the French acronym PDCI, has the opportunity to be its presidential candidate.
Since leaving Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam, 61, has returned to politics in Ivory Coast and presented his candidacy last month to lead the party that has governed the West African country from independence until the early 2000s.
His campaign team said in a statement Saturday that police had cordoned off the Abidjan hotel where the congress was to be held. She asked her supporters to avoid the area and wait for instructions from the party.
Tidjane Thiam was a minister under former president Henry Konan Bedie. He left the West African country after it was ousted in a military coup in 1999 and worked for consultancy McKinsey, as well as insurers Aviva and Prudential, before to be appointed CEO of Crédit Suisse in 2015.
(Ange Aboa report, written by Bate Felix, French version Benjamin Mallet)
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