President Alassane Ouattara has won re-election in Ivory Coast’s presidential vote, according to preliminary results.
The country’s Independent Electoral Commission announced on Monday that the 83-year-old incumbent won a fourth term with 89.77 percent of the total vote.
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On Saturday, nearly 9 million Ivorians were eligible to vote in the election that eliminated Mr. Ouattara’s top rival. Former President Laurent Gbagbo was convicted and banned, and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam was disqualified from obtaining French citizenship.
The remaining four candidates were not considered strong candidates because they lacked support from major political parties or significant financial resources.
One of them, former commerce minister Jean-Louis Billon, who congratulated Ouattara on Sunday, received 3.09% of the vote. Former first lady Simone Gbagbo received 2.42% of the vote, according to the results read out on state television by electoral commission chief Ibrahime Coulibaly-Quibier.
Coulibaly-Quibiere put the turnout at about 50%, comparable to the 2010 and 2015 presidential elections, but well below the 80% who voted in the first round in 2010.
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idriss, reporting from Ivory Coast’s capital Abidjan, said the banning of Ouattara’s leading rivals and low voter turnout gave him a “landslide victory.”
“Many are wondering whether this is support, but the electoral commission announced that more than 50 percent of voters participated in this election. This could give Mr. Ouattara the credibility he needs to govern,” he said.
“A deeply divided nation”
Ouattara’s detractors accuse the president of dragging the country down an authoritarian path of choosing opponents in elections.
Amid widespread anger over his decision to run for a fourth consecutive term, many voters abstained. Under the constitution, a president can serve a maximum of two terms, but Ouattara claims that the 2016 constitutional review “reset” that limit.
In the weeks leading up to the election, sporadic protests erupted in response to voting deadlines for major candidates, with the government banning demonstrations and arresting more than 200 members of the campaign group Common Front.
Al Jazeera’s Idris said it remains to be seen whether Ouattara will be able to “unite a deeply divided country” and that he will have to make “a lot of effort” to win over his critics.
Mr. Ouattara, who had a long career at the International Monetary Fund and West African central banks before becoming prime minister in 1990, has noted how much the economy has improved under his leadership through increased foreign investment and changes in infrastructure and stability.
However, social inequality remains severe and corruption persists.
The former French colony and leading cocoa producer is weighed down by public debt equivalent to about 60% of its gross domestic product (GDP), while large gaps in education and health insurance remain.
“Many Ivorians say economic success has not yet reached them. Many say they still struggle to support their families because of the high cost of living. There are also fewer jobs available to young people,” Idriss said.
Ouattara said he promised to bring reforms to address inequalities. “But it is not clear at this point whether it will lead to large-scale employment opportunities, job creation and further wealth for people,” Idris said.
security threats
Ouattara’s campaign focused on security amid growing instability in the region.
He is seeking a fourth term in office as violence threatens to spill over from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso in the Sahel, where armed groups such as Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslim Jamaah (JNIM) and ISIL affiliates in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) carry out acts of violence.
Starting in 2022, Ouattara’s government has increased the defense budget, increased the deployment of troops to northern regions bordering the Sahel, and purchased armored tanks from countries such as China.
Amid growing instability in the country, he vowed to facilitate the handing of the torch to a new generation of political leaders. There is currently no clear successor, and the ruling party is divided.
Rinaldo Despergne, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s Africa program, said that without a successor, the country could fall into the same kind of crisis that followed the death of founding president Félix Houphouët-Boigny in 1993, which was accompanied by armed conflict.
Reuters quoted Depargne as saying: “The people thought they had no future in politics, or could not imagine that politics could bring about positive change in this country.”
The Constitutional Council is expected to verify the Election Commission’s results within the next few days.
