Simone Gbagbo, Côte d'Ivoire's former first lady running for president

By Marine Jeannin (Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), correspondent) and Anna Sylvestre-Treiner (Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), special correspondent)

Simone Ehivet Gbagbo is almost unrecognizable in her campaign posters. At 76, her face is smooth, and she smiles broadly, appearing radiant. After half a century of fierce political struggle, she now stands center stage. At the end of her rallies, she dances with joy. For the first time in the history of Côte d'Ivoire's presidential elections, "Gbagbo" refers to her.

The former first lady is a candidate in Saturday's October 25 vote, unlike her ex-husband, former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was not authorized to run by the Constitutional Council due to a criminal sentence. She will face three other challengers and the incumbent president, Alassane Ouattara, the strong favorite who is seeking a fourth term.

An opponent she now treats with courtesy, though he was once her greatest enemy. In the past, she would angrily call him the "chief bandit": the man from the North who ousted her from the presidency by force on April 11, 2011, with the help of "the devil" – Nicolas Sarkozy, then the president of France.

That day, her image was broadcast on television screens around the world. In a bedroom of the presidential residence, she sat hunched on a bed, her braids torn out, while her husband looked stunned. They were defeated and arrested almost live on camera by the Forces Nouvelles rebels, backed by relentless shelling from French Licorne helicopters. It was the outcome of four months of deadly standoff – with 3,000 victims left dead according to the United Nations – between them and Ouattara, winner of the 2010 presidential election to whom the Gbagbos refused to cede power.

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