Gbagbo was ousted in April 2011 after a war sparked by his refusal to accept electoral defeat at the hands of Alassane Ouattara, the current president.
Guillaume Soro is charged with fomenting a 'civilian and military insurrection' as he was planning a return to the country in December 2019 to run for president - a bid that was quashed by the Constitutional Court.
The vote passed off peacefully and for the first time in a decade included all of the country's main political players, providing hope that Ivory Coast has begun to emerge from recent turbulence.
The meeting focussed on demands for reform of the country's electoral commission ahead of legislative elections early next year, an opposition leader told journalists afterwards.
The solemn ceremony was attended by 13 African counterparts as well as former French president Nicolas Sarkozy - but boycotted by the opposition, as was the election that returned Ouattara to power.
Laurent Gbagbo was forced out by his rival, Alassane Ouattara, after a brief but bloody civil war that claimed some 3,000 lives.
Nearly 50 people have been killed in clashes since August and two opposition chiefs have been arrested, fuelling fears Ivory Coast could slide into the kind of widespread unrest it suffered after a disputed 2010 vote.
Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara has been reelected with more than 94% of the vote, electoral authorities said Tuesday, after a poll marred by clashes and an opposition boycott over his bid for a contested third term.
The move deepened a crisis that erupted in August when Ouattara said he would run again, to the fury of the opposition who called it a constitutional breach and an 'electoral coup' in the West African country.
By midday Monday, the Electoral Commission had released preliminary results from around a quarter of the country's 108 regions showing President Alassane Ouattara with a commanding lead, as much as 90% in parts of his stronghold in the north.
Guillaume Soro urged the country's opposition parties to unite against President Alassane Ouattara even as he insisted that the 31 October presidential poll 'does not make any sense' as it was designed to 'endorse the institutional state coup d'etat of Alassane Ouattara'.
Macron has repeatedly said he wants to break from the past in which France often seemed to call the shots in its former colonies and said that it was time for older generations to hand over to Africa’s younger politicians.
Clashes broke out after Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, after initially saying he would not stand again, changed his mind following the sudden death of prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, his anointed successor.
