Two women candidates try their luck in the Ivory Coast’s 2025 presidential elections
The two presidential candidates: Simone Ehivet Gbagbo (left) and Henriette Lagou Adjoua (right). Screenshots from the video “Presidential Elections in Côte d’Ivoire: Henriette Lagou’s Campaign” on the France24 YouTube channel. Edited on Canva.
The Ivory Coast held its presidential elections on October 25, 2025. Two women, including a former First Lady, were among the five candidates running for the highest political office for the next five years.
The Ivorian electoral process, in which the president is elected through universal suffrage, is fraught with tension. This is due to the disqualification of some key opposition candidates and the approval of others, such as Alassane Ouattara, who has been president since 2011 and is seeking reelection in a fourth consecutive term.
Read: Watchdogs warn of lack of transparency in Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential candidate selection process
Incumbent president and candidate for the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), Alassane Ouattara, faced four opposition candidates: Simone Éhivet Gbagbo, former First Lady and candidate for the Movement of Capable Generations (MGC); Ahoua Don Mello, professor and independent candidate; Henriette Lagou Adjoua, candidate for the Group of Political Partners for Peace (GP-PAIX), and Jean-Louis Billon, 60, candidate for the Democratic Congress.
These five candidates, who the Constitutional Council has approved, campaigned throughout the country, which has over 32 million citizens and is listed as a hybrid democratic regime in The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2024 report.
The two women candidates were close to Laurent Gbagbo, president from 2000–2011. Simone was the former president’s wife, and Henriette Lagou Adjoua worked with Gbagbo as a minister.
Who is Simone Éhivet Gbagbo?
Born in Moossou, a small village in the Grand-Bassam commune, 43 kilometers east of Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast in 1949, Simone Ehivet Gbagbo is a professional historian. She was also a teacher, enabling her to participate in the 1982 teachers’ strikes before embarking on a political career with the creation of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), a political party she founded with her ex-husband and other politicians. Simone held a political position as a member of parliament for her party from
2018.
For the October 2025 elections, she sought to build on her experience, offering the Ivory Coast a program geared towards justice, healthcare reform, security, and the economy.
She also has considerable support on the Ivorian political scene, especially from Charles Blé Goudé, president of the Pan-African Congress for Justice and Equality of Peoples (COJEP), whose candidacy was rejected.
Who is Henriette Lagou Adjoua
Born in Daoukro, a town in east-central Ivory Coast, on June 22, 1959, Henriette Adjoua Lagou graduated in social security after extensive studies in her home country and France. In October 2000, she started out in politics as the Minister of Family, Women, and Children in Pascal Affi N’Guessan’s government.
As a writer, she raised the debate on the barriers preventing Ivorian female politicians from rising to the nation’s highest office in her 2025 book “Why Not a Woman?”
She is also known for fighting for women’s rights in the Ivory Coast. As a former unsuccessful candidate in the 2015 presidential elections, she will run for a second time. Henriette put peace, national reconciliation, stability, dialogue, and social cohesion at the center of her election campaign for sustainable development.
High tensions ahead of the vote
The election campaigns began throughout the country on October 10, 2025, against this backdrop of tension. All candidates that the Constitutional Council approved did their utmost to appeal to and convince the Ivorian people with their social projects.
Meanwhile, excluded candidates call on their supporters to protest against these elections going ahead. Instead, they demand inclusive dialogue, as explained in this Africa News video report:
Despite the ban on protests, citizens poured onto the streets of Abidjan and other towns across the country to denounce the current regime’s power grab. These protests often resulted in arrests. According to an article by media group Jeune Afrique, the authorities announced the arrest of around 700 protesters. Fifty were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for acts of “public disorder, unlawful assembly, and participation in a banned march.”
On October 17, 2025, Sansan Kambilé, Ivorian Minister of Justice, suggested a possible restriction on the freedom to protest. He said:
(…) l’exercice du droit de manifester peut « faire l’objet de restrictions […] dans l’intérêt de la sécurité nationale, de la sûreté publique, de l’ordre public ». (…) les manifestations qui ont eu lieu depuis samedi « revêtent un caractère subversif » et sont « marquées par une violence incompatible avec les exigences de la loi ».
Exercising the right to protest ‘may be subject to restrictions in the interest of national security, public safety, and public order.’ The protests that have taken place since Saturday are of a subversive nature and are marked by violence incompatible with the requirements of the law.
In total, more than 8.7 million voters went to the polls.
Today, women’s involvement in politics allows all women to dream of holding presidential office in the Ivory Coast and across the continent. Two African women have already done it: Samia Suluhu, President of the Republic of Tanzania since March 19, 2021, and Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, President of the Republic of Namibia since March 21, 2025.
The ballots are still being tallied, though early counts indicate incumbent Alassane Ouattara may be the winner.
Read our special coverage: Côte d’Ivoire: Regional powerhouse
