2020 Ivorian presidential election


Presidential elections will be held in Ivory Coast on 31 October 2020.

Electoral system

The President of Ivory Coast will be elected for a five-year term using the two-round system. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, a second round will be held. Parliament will then elect a Vice-President. According to the 2016 constitution, the President and Vice-President are limited to two consecutive terms.

Candidates

In January 2017 incumbent President Alassane Ouattara announced that he would not run again after being president for two terms.
Former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who was living in France, announced that he would contest the elections. However, on 29 April 2020 he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison and given a $7.6 million fine. Soro's lawyers claimed this was an attempt to prevent him taking part in the election.
In March 2020, the ruling Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace party chose Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly as their candidate. However, Coulibaly died on 8 July.