The head of the Election Commission said that the election registry will not be revised until the polls are conducted.

According to the Election Commission, four prominent opposition figures were excluded from the final election list, which left them ineligible to compete for the critical October presidential election in a country with less out of reach of civil war and coup attempts.

“My cancellation of the Election List (CEI) from the Independent Election Commission (CEI) is a sad but eloquent example of the loss of the Ivory Coast towards a total lack of democracy,” Tidjane Thiam, leader of the leading opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI), said in a statement Wednesday.

Two days after Thiam's statement was released, CEI Director Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly announced that the election registry would not be held before the vote.

Thiam, widely regarded as the main challenger to President Alassane Ouattara, ruled in court that he was not eligible to run for president because of his dual Ivarian-French nationality and was hit by voters in April. Born on the Ivory Coast, Thiam obtained French nationality in 1987 but gave up in March.

Other major candidates excluded from the vote include former President Laurent Gbagbo and his close ally Charles Ble Goude, who was charged with human crimes related to the Civil War.

Former Prime Minister and rebel leader Guillaume Soro was also banned. He was sentenced to absenteeism for organizing a coup.

None of these four people can run for the presidential election or vote on October 25.

Ouattara, who has been in power since 2011, has been included in the election register, but has not yet announced whether he will seek a fourth term.

In 2015 and 2020, Ouattara won with more than 80% of the vote.

His party said Thiam had appealed to the UN Human Rights Commission.

His lawyer, Mathias Chichportich, said in a statement sent to AFP News that depriving opposition leaders of “his political rights” was a “serious violation of Ivory Coast’s international commitments.”

GBAGBO's African BJP-Ivory Coast (PPA-CI) complained that the authorities "had no choice to listen to suggestions, out of rational appeals."

"It is a shame that they choose to force their own path, and we won't let them do that," he said.

The final election list lists other opposition data that announced plans to be president.

Among them is former First Lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, who spoke on behalf of the opposition coalition, said there was no eligibility for a "peaceful, peaceful election."

During the 2020 presidential election, the election list was revised in June before the October voting day.

The final election registry for this year's vote includes the names of 8.7 million voters, in a country with a high immigrant population, nearly half of the 30 million residents are under the age of 18.

Authorities deny any political interference in the electoral process, insisting that they respect the decisions of independent judiciary.