Cote d’Ivoire’s African People’s Party (PPA-CI) is set to initiate steps to have Gbagbo re-registered on the electoral list after he agreed to be the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential elections.

Gbagbo, who was Cote d’Ivoire’s president from 2000 to 2011, launched PPA-CI in 2021 following his acquittal on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and his return from a decade abroad.

Gbagbo lost control of the party he previously founded, the Ivorian Popular Front, to a former ally while imprisoned awaiting trial in the Netherlands for several years, but he retains a large and loyal base of supporters at home