Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara secured a landslide victory in elections that the main opposition asked their supporters to boycott, arguing his bid for a third term is unconstitutional.
Ouattara will lead the world’s top cocoa producer for another five years, after defeating independent candidate Kouadio Konan Bertin. The names of his main rivals, Henri Konan Bedie, as well as Pascal Affi N’Guessan, the leader of a smaller party, appeared on the ballot paper, but the two called for their supporters to stay away.
Ouattara got 94.27% of the vote, Ibrahime Kuibiert-Coulibaly, the head of the electoral commission, said in a speech early Tuesday. Voter turnout was 53.9%, he said.
Bedie, 86, will lead a national transitional council of opposition parties “to organize free and fair elections,” Affi N’Guessan told reporters on Monday. While vote counting was underway, Bedie tweeted that his home and those of other opposition leaders had been attacked simultaneously in the economic capital, Abidjan.
The vote has fueled concerns about unrest in the world’s largest cocoa-growing nation. The run-up to the ballot was marred by sporadic violence that the government blamed on opposition parties calling for a civil-disobedience campaign and at least five people died on Saturday when the vote took place.
The government deployed about 35,000 security personnel nationwide to secure the election.
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