Tidjane Thiam, the Franco-Ivorian banker, was elected as the president of the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) on Friday, December 22, 2023, becoming the main opposition party's leader in the country.
Mr. Thiam secured a comfortable victory during the party congress in Yamoussoukro, obtaining 96.5% of the votes. His opponent, the mayor of the Cocody district in Abidjan, Jean-Marc Yacé, received 3.2% of the votes. The results were announced late in the evening, with over 6,000 congress delegates participating in the capital on Friday. The voting process concluded without major incidents, achieving a 64% turnout.
Thiam now becomes the third elected president in the history of the PDCI, founded in 1946 by the father of the Ivorian nation, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, and another former head of state, Henri Konan Bédié. His victory positions him to potentially run for president in the upcoming 2025 elections.
Tidjane Thiam, who served as the CEO of Credit Suisse from 2015 to 2020, was considered a favorite due to his international reputation and substantial support from the party's majority of lawmakers.
The PDCI, aiming for a return to power in two years, has expressed its endorsement of Mr. Thiam for a potential candidacy in 2025.
Having held uninterrupted power in Côte d'Ivoire from 1960 to 1999, the former single-party PDCI has not ascended to the presidency for the past twenty-four years, following a coup that ousted Henri Konan Bédié on Christmas Eve 1999. While initially allied with Alassane Ouattara, in power since 2011, the PDCI returned to opposition in 2018 and boycotted the last presidential election.
Mr. Thiam left Abidjan after the 1999 coup, where he held a ministerial position. The question arises as to whether, after more than two decades outside Côte d'Ivoire, he can be seen as a credible presidential candidate, given criticism from opponents who perceive him as detached from the country's realities.
Notably, his return has not gone unnoticed, as members of the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy (RHDP), the ruling party in Côte d'Ivoire, criticized him after his first gathering in Yamoussoukro in early December, urging him to be "humble and a bit less arrogant."
As the great-nephew of Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1905-1993), Tidjane Thiam has emphasized this family connection in recent weeks, expressing "great emotion" for the "land of [his] ancestors" upon his return to politics.