Ivory Coast president re-elected to contested third term
ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara was re-elected to a contested third term, electoral authorities said yesterday, after a vote marred by deadly unrest and a boycott by the opposition who promised to set up a rival “transitional” government.
The standof f pi tche s francophone West Africa’s top economy deeper into a crisis that erupted in August when Ouattara said he would run for a third term, angering the opposition who accused him of carrying out an “electoral coup”.
“The President Alassane Ouattara has been elected,” election commission president Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert said in an early morning broadcast.
He said Ouattara won 94% of the vote and that turnout had been 53.9%.
The landslide result had been widely expected after two leading opposition leaders called for a boycott of the ballot and a civil disobedience campaign.
Pre-election clashes killed at least 30 and anti-Ouattara protests have stoked fears of a repeat of a crisis a decade ago when 3 000 people died in fighting after thenpresident Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by Ouattara.
Hours before the results, the opposition said they would create a transitional government, insisting Ouattara’s mandate was over as he had broken the country’s two-term presidential limit.
Ouattara, a former IMF economist first elected in 2010, says a 2016 reform allowed him to run again.
“The opposition parties and groups announce the creation of a council of national transition,” Pascal Affi N’Guessan told reporters on Monday night. “This council’s mission will be to... create a transitional government within the next few hours.”
He said it would work to hold “a fair, transparent and inclusive presidential election”.
“Keeping Mr Ouattara as head of state could lead to civil war,” he added.
There was no immediate response from the government over the opposition announcement.