Ivory Coast Sets September 2 Elections

FILE: In the last round of regional and city elections, a vote worker verifies a voter's identity thanks to a tablette at a polling station, in Port Bouet, during the local elections, on December 16, 2018 in Abidjan.

ABIDJAN - Regional and municipal elections will take place in Ivory Coast on September 2, a government spokesperson said Wednesday, ahead of presidential elections set for 2025.

The September date was set by decree after a proposal from the Independent Election Commission, said government spokesperson Amadou Coulibaly.

Eleven members of the government will stand in the regional elections, according to a list published by the RHDP.

Prime Minister Patrick Achi will be seeking re-election as head of the Me regional council, his home area in the southeast.

The coming votes are considered a test of the strength of Ivory Coast's leading political groups before the presidential vote in the West African nation.

The elections will be a first outing for former president Laurent Gbagbo's new African People's Party - Ivory Coast (PPA-CI), a left-wing pan-African group.

Gbagbo returned to Ivory Coast in June 2021 after being acquitted by the International Criminal Court on human rights charges linked to post-electoral violence in 2011.

The governing RHDP party won control of 18 of the country's 31 regions five years ago, with the main opposition Democratic Party taking six.