Abidjan: Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara has secured a fourth term in office after provisional election results showed a significant victory, the electoral commission announced Monday. With an overwhelming 89.7% of the vote, the 83-year-old leader is set to extend his tenure to nearly two decades.
According to Deutsche Welle, two major opponents of Ouattara, Tidjane Thiam, a former Credit Suisse executive, and Ouattara’s predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, were barred from participating in the election. Approximately 8.5 million voters were registered, but the turnout was low, with only around 50% casting their votes.
Voter turnout mirrored that of the 2020 elections, where Ouattara won 94% of the vote amid an opposition boycott. In this election cycle, Ouattara was the clear favorite, as main rivals Gbagbo and Thiam were legally prevented from running. Thiam was excluded from the electoral list due to acquiring French nationality, while Gbagbo faced a ban due to a criminal conviction.
Protests erupted in early October against the exclusion of the two candidates, resulting in hundreds of activists being detained and reports of several unexplained kidnappings. The Ivorian Human Rights Commission reported six deaths related to the election.