ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam filed his candidacy for president of one of Ivory Coast’s main opposition parties on Friday, which could put him in the running for president. the 2025 presidential election.
Tidjane Thiam, aged 61, was a minister under former president Henry Konan Bédié. He left the country after the latter was ousted in a 1999 coup and worked for consultancy McKinsey, as well as insurers Aviva and Prudential, before being named chief executive of Credit Switzerland in 2015.
Five years later, he resigned following a major espionage scandal in which he denied any involvement.
Tidjane Thiam recently returned to Côte d’Ivoire, for the first time in nearly 25 years, to run for president of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), founded by the country’s first president, Félix Houphouët Boigny.
“I am a candidate for the privilege of serving you,” Tidjane Thiam told an enthusiastic crowd of PDCI members at the party’s headquarters in Abidjan, the country’s financial capital.
He will run against four other candidates in the December 16 elections. The winner has a strong chance of becoming the PDCI candidate for the 2025 presidential election.
“Thiam is the only possible choice, because he is the only one who can lead the PDCI to victory in 2025,” said Emmanuel Katie, 31, an employee of the financial sector, after his speech.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, aged 81, has not yet announced his intentions for 2025.
(Ange Aboa report, French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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