African leader secures fourth term

An opposition coalition has denounced Alassane Ouattara’s victory as “a civilian coup d’état,” declaring that the Ivorian leader “has no legitimacy”

The president of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Alassane Ouattara, has been declared the winner of Saturday’s general election, extending his rule over the West African nation to a fourth term in a contest marked by barred opposition figures and a low voter turnout.

According to results published by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) on Monday, Ouattara secured 89.77% of the valid votes. His nearest rival, former Commerce Minister Jean-Louis Billon, trailed far behind with 3.09%, while former First Lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo obtained 2.42%.

Ex-Minister of Infrastructure and Sanitation Don-Mello Ahoua Jacob received 1.97%, and Henriette Lagou Adjoua, a veteran politician who has served in government, finished last with 1.15%. The CEI reported that about half of the 8,568,456 registered voters cast their ballots – similar to levels recorded in the 2010 and 2015 presidential polls.

Top opposition figures, including former President Laurent Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam, were barred from running for president. Thiam was removed from the electoral roll for holding French citizenship, while Gbagbo was excluded over prior convictions. Protests over the disqualifications prompted authorities to ban many demonstrations and deploy more than 44,000 security personnel nationwide, with more than 200 opposition supporters arrested.

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Ouattara, 83, has been in power since 2011, when he assumed the presidency following the arrest of Gbagbo, who refused to accept defeat in the 2010 election. He was originally limited to two terms, but constitutional changes adopted in 2016 reset the presidential term count, enabling his subsequent bids.

In a statement on Sunday, the Common Front, a coalition of opposition parties, called the vote “a civilian coup d’état” and said Ouattara “has no legitimacy.”

The former French colony is the world’s leading cocoa producer and, according to the World Bank, has shown economic resilience, with real GDP growth reaching 6% in 2024, well above the global 2.8% and regional 3.2% averages. Inequalities, however, persist in education and health coverage amid alleged corruption within the government.

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Ouattara has promised to “build an ambitious Cote d’Ivoire, a nation of peace, solidarity, work and fraternity” during his fourth term.