release of the imprisoned RDR leaders; when President Henri Konan Bédié rejected the demands, they seized power on December 24 and promptly released the RDR prisoners. Ouattara returned to Ivory Coast on December 29, hailing Bédié's ouster as a "revolution supported by all the Ivorian people". Despite Ouattara's support for the coup, his candidacy in the October 2000 presidential election was rejected by the Supreme Court, on the same nationality basis that was used to prevent his candidacy during Bédié's presidency. As a result, the RDR decided to boycott the presidential election. It also boycotted the parliamentary election held on 10 December 2000 and 14 January 2001, but nevertheless won five out of 225 seats. The RDR is a full member of the Liberal International, which it joined at the Liberal International's Dakar Congress in 2003. On May 18, 2005, despite their history of hostility, the RDR and the PDCI signed an agreement to form a coalition, the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace, along with two smaller parties, the Union for Democracy and Peace in Côte d'Ivoire (UDPCI) and the Movement of the Forces of the Future (MFA), ahead of the presidential election then planned for October 2005. Ouattara was designated as the RDR's presidential candidate at its Second Ordinary Congress on February 1–3, 2008 and also re-elected as President of the RDR for another five years. At the congress, he invited the former rebel Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire (New Forces) to team up with the RDR for the election. In the first round of the 2010 presidential elections, Ouattara finished second, behind incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. In the runoff, Ouattara was announced as finishing first with 54 percent of the vote—a result recognized by virtually the entire international community. Gbagbo, however, refused to step down, touching off a major political crisis that only ended with Gbagbo's capture on 11 April 2011. Between 2012 and 2016, the RDR's Fadika Sarra Sako served as Vice-President of the National Assembly. At the RDR's Third Ordinary Congress on 9–10 September 2017, it was expected that Ouattara would be elected as President of the RDR, but he instead proposed Henriette Diabaté for the post, and she was duly elected by acclamation. Kandia Camara was designated as Secretary-General and Amadou Gon Coulibaly as First Vice-President. In 2020, Célestine Olibé Trazéré left the RDR for the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace. Congress