By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A former Credit Suisse Chief Executive Officer has been elected as leader of the PDCI, one of Ivory Coast’s main opposition parties.
With this development, he is likely to emerge the party’s candidate in the 2025 presidential election.
Tidjane Thiam on Friday received votes from over 90% of the 7,000 members of the PDCI who gathered for the voting exercise, the party said.
PDCI is the French acronym for Democratic Party of Ivory Coast.
Thiam, 61, served in the cabinet of ex-President Henry Konan Bedie in the 1990s before leaving the West African country almost 25 years ago when Bedie was ousted in a coup.
Since then, he has worked for consultancy firm McKinsey, insurers Aviva and Prudential and as Credit Suisse CEO.
He quit the Swiss bank in 2020 following a major spying scandal in which he denied any involvement.
PDCI governed Ivory Coast from independence to the early 2000s. Its previous party leader Bedie died in August aged 89.
The presidential election in 2020 ended an alliance between President Alassane Ouattara’s RDR and PDCI, after an election that opposition parties largely boycotted and dismissed as illegal.
President Ouattara, 81, has not made comment whether he would stand for he 2025 poll.
