The list of candidates for the 2025 presidential election in Ivory Coast has expanded with the announcement that Simone Ehivet, the ex-wife of former President Laurent Gbagbo, will run for office.
Ehivet, who secured her party’s nomination at a congress in her hometown of Moossou in southeastern Ivory Coast, is now the candidate of the Movement of Capable Generations (MGC). In her acceptance speech, she outlined her key priorities, including national reconciliation through amnesty, food sovereignty, and industrialization.
Ehivet and Gbagbo divorced in June 2023 after 34 years of marriage and decades of political activism together. A former teacher, Ehivet began her political involvement in the 1970s as a trade unionist. Her political profile rose significantly after meeting Gbagbo in 1973. The couple co-founded the Popular Ivorian Front (FPI) in 1982, which played a key role in opposition to the rule of Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
During Gbagbo’s imprisonment for war crimes, control of the FPI was taken over by Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who is also running in the upcoming election.
