Côte d'Ivoire's judiciary struck the leader of the country's main opposition party off the electoral list on Tuesday, arguing that he had lost his citizenship, his lawyer said.

Six months ahead of the country's presidential election, the court said Tidjane Thiam was removed from the electoral list because "he had lost Ivorian nationality when he acquired French nationality" in 1987.

Thiam, who heads the Democratic Party (PDCI), renounced his French citizenship in February in order to stand in the presidential election.

Article 55 of the Ivorian Constitution stipulates that a presidential candidate must be "exclusively of Ivorian nationality born of a father or mother of Ivorian origin".

Thiam, a 62-year-old former engineer, minister and bank chief, lived outside Côte d'Ivoire for about 20 years before returning in 2022.