Marcel Amon-Tanoh has been appointed as Special Adviser to Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara, a move announced less than a year before the country’s crucial presidential elections in October 2025.
“Mr. Marcel Amon-Tanoh is appointed Special Adviser to the President of the Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix (RHDP),” stated a formal note signed by President Ouattara.
The appointment, effective from December 12, 2024, was confirmed in a decision issued by Ouattara, who is widely considered the ruling party’s natural candidate for the upcoming election.
Amon-Tanoh, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, had distanced himself from the RHDP during the 2020 presidential election.
However, he reconciled with Ouattara in 2022 and was subsequently appointed Executive Secretary of the Conseil de l’Entente, a regional political and economic cooperation body, a position he left in September 2023.
In recent statements, RHDP spokesperson and Minister of State for Agriculture, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, reinforced the party’s stance, asserting that “Alassane Ouattara is the official candidate of the RHDP in 2025.”
While Ouattara, in power since 2011, has yet to formally announce his intention to run for another term, there have been persistent calls from within the RHDP urging him to do so.
Meanwhile, former President Laurent Gbagbo, Ouattara’s rival during the tumultuous 2010 election, has already been declared the candidate of his party, the PPA-CI, for the 2025 presidential race.
The upcoming elections are expected to be highly significant, with key figures from Ivory Coast’s political history vying for leadership in what promises to be a defining moment for the nation.
