Rights
2016 Constitution of the Third Republic with a Senate and a Conseil constitutionnel
The Constitution of 8 November 2016 founded the Third Republic, created a Senate and a vice-presidency, and removed the contested nationality-of-both-parents eligibility rule that had fuelled the ivoirité crisis. A 2020 revision followed, and the Conseil constitutionnel rules on elections.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Conseil constitutionnel for constitutionality and elections; Cour de cassation heads the ordinary judiciary since the 2018 split of the Cour suprême.
- Deadline — Presidential election petition to the Conseil constitutionnel: short statutory window after provisional results
- Deadline — Review of an organic law before promulgation: mandatory
Governing law
- Constitution du 8 novembre 2016
- Loi n° 2020-348 portant révision de la Constitution
- Loi organique n° 2001-303 sur le Conseil constitutionnel
In practice
The 2016 Constitution is best read against the ivoirité dispute: the requirement that a presidential candidate's parents both be Ivorian by birth had been used to exclude Alassane Ouattara and contributed to two civil wars. The 2016 text requires only one Ivorian parent. The Cour suprême was subsequently divided into a Cour de cassation, a Conseil d'État and a Cour des comptes, completing the French-style separation.