Ivory Coast President Ouattara secures third term in office

Ivory Coast President, Alassane Ouattara, has secured a third term of another five years in office.
Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert, head of the electoral commission, made the announcement in a broadcast on Tuesday November 2, 2020.

“The President Alassane Ouattara has been elected,” election commission Coulibaly-Kuibiert said in an early morning broadcast.

He said Ouattara won 94 per cent of the vote and that turnout had been 53.9 per cent.

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 then-president 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 added.

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.

Streets in the economic capital Abidjan were mostly deserted late Monday night.

Activists and residents said shots or small detonations were fired outside the homes of two opposition leaders in the city, though no one was injured.

Opposition figures had already rejected Saturday’s ballot and called for a “civilian transition” from Ouattara, provoking a warning from his ruling party against trying to stir up unrest.

N’Guessan said the transitional council would be led by opposition veteran Henri Konan Bedie, 86, a former president and long-term adversary of Ouattara.