Death of Ruling Party Candidate Upends Ivory Coast Presidential Race

JOHANNESBURG—The demise of the ruling-party candidate in Ivory Coast’s October presidential election has unraveled a rigorously choreographed succession plan, testing the soundness of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly died Wednesday, simply days after coming back from two months’ medical therapy in France, the place he had obtained a coronary heart transplant in 2012. The 61-year-old was an in depth lieutenant of President Alassane Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund official who has overseen…