According to the election commission, 78-year-old Alassane Ouattara received 94 percent of the vote when the opposition boycotted the elections.
The President of the Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, has provisionally won a third term with 94.27 percent of the vote after a bitter election that triggered deadly violence and boycotted the opposition voters, the election commission said.
“So elected President of the Republic, Alassane Ouattara,” announced Kuibiert-Coulibaly Ibrahime, chairman of the electoral commission, early on Tuesday.
He said the final turnout for the October 31st elections was 53.90 percent.
The results must be validated by the country’s Constitutional Council, which, after hearing disputes or complaints about irregularities, will determine the final winner.
The electoral commission said the final turnout for the October 31 elections was 53.90 percent [Sia Kambou/AFP]Two of the main opposition candidates on the ballot had asked supporters not to vote in Saturday’s elections to run against Ouattara’s decision. Your parties said whole parts of the country did not participate.
Opposition activists say Ouattara’s decision to seek a third term was another blow to democracy in West Africa less than three months after a military coup in neighboring Mali and a successful third term bid from Guinea’s President Alpha Conde.
78-year-old Ouattara received more than 90 percent of the vote in most districts, despite the opposition saying his offer was an illegal attempt to stay in power.
The Ivorian constitution limits presidents to two terms in office, but Ouattara says approval of a new constitution in 2016 enabled him to restart his mandate.
The disagreement led to clashes leading up to the vote in which at least 30 people were killed. At least five others were killed on Saturday, officials said.
The world’s best cocoa-growing country has been spared the widespread violence that many feared would break out during the elections, but many Ivorians fear the country could experience longer-term unrest.
More than 3,000 people were killed in a brief civil war following a controversial election in 2010.
The Carter Center, which oversaw the elections on Saturday, said the political and security situation made it difficult to organize a credible vote.
“The electoral process excluded a large number of Ivorian political forces and was boycotted by part of the population in a volatile security environment,” it said in a statement.
The opposition candidates who boycotted the vote – former President Henri Konan Bedie and ex-Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan – have said they will not recognize Ouattara’s victory.
In a joint statement on Monday evening, they announced the creation of a transitional council chaired by Bedie.
“The task of the Council will be to prepare the framework for a credible and transparent presidential election. A government will be named in the next few hours, ”N’Guessan said at a press conference.
Shots were fired on Monday in Abidjan’s upscale Cocody neighborhood, the commercial capital, destroying the tense calm that prevailed on election day and the day after, witnesses said.
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