He is now seeking to apply international pressure on President Alassane Ouattara after the Constitutional Court on 9 September upheld the ruling that prevents both him and former president Laurent Gbagbo from standing in the 25 October election (Dispatches 8/9/25 Thiam faces election judgement day)...

Just three months after 25 parties formed the Coalition pour l'alternance pacifique en Côte d'Ivoire (CAP-CI) its largest member – the Parti Démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) led by Tidjane Thiam – has entered a separate alliance with the one major opposition party excluded from the coalition: the Parti des Peuples Africains – Côte d'Ivoire (PPA-CI) led by former president Laurent Gbagbo...

Along with Thiam former President Laurent Gbagbo his ally Charles Blé Goudé and former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro have been barred from running for the Presidency...

Next came the protests over the exclusion of former President Laurent Gbagbo his youth minister Charles Blé Goudé and ex-president of the Ivorian parliament Guillaume Soro from the list of eligible presidential candidates...

The coalition also includes Simone Gbagbo the ex-wife of former President Laurent Gbagbo and his former youth leader Charles Blé Goudé...

The subsequent return home of Ouattara's longtime rival Laurent Gbagbo after his acquittal at the International Criminal Court fed into the mood of consensus...

The current book he says fulfils his promise to the man who used to call him ‘fiston' (‘son') though it also details the contributions presidents Laurent Gbagbo Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Blaise Compaoré also made to the Elysée...

It's not former President Laurent Gbagbo – who last week announced his candidacy – that Ouattara and the RHDP have to worry about...