Paris - Former Ivory Coast rebel leader
Guillaume Soro said on Tuesday he would not drop out of
presidential elections set for the end of the year, despite an
arrest warrant out against him.
"I definitely remain a candidate in the election. Those who
tried to stop me from going back to my homeland will not stop me
from being a candidate," he told Reuters in Paris.
Ivory Coast's public prosecutor issued the warrant for Soro
on December 23 as part of an investigation into an alleged coup
plot.
Soro denied any wrongdoing and said he was a victim of
judicial persecution. "Mercenaries made illegal recordings
thinking they can entrap me," he said. "My lawyers have filed a
case in Paris against the authors and prosecutor because part
of(the alleged recording) was done in France."
Soro added that his lawyers had placed a request with French
prosecutors for his rights to be respected, and will do the same
with the regional West African Court of Justice, the African
Court on Human and People's Rights, and the United Nations.
The case against Soro adds to political tensions ahead of
the October 2020 vote, regarded as a test of Ivory Coast’s
stability after two civil wars since the turn of the century.
Soro said there could be a pre-electoral crisis in Ivory
Coast. "I must return to Ivory Coast. We will organise ourselves
to make sure that my entry to Ivory Coast is possible."
President Alassane Ouattara won re-election in 2015 but has
been unclear about whether he will seek a third term, deepening
uncertainty about the vote in Francophone West Africa’s largest
economy, also the world’s biggest cocoa producer.
Soro retains the loyalty of many former rebel commanders who
now hold senior positions in the army. He served for several
years as speaker of the National Assembly but has since fallen
out with Ouattara.