New constitution approved in Ivory Coast referendum: Officials

People in Ivory Coast have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution in a referendum, which had been boycotted by the opposition, electoral officials say.

The “yes” campaign won in the Sunday referendum with 93.42 percent of the votes, the electoral commission said on Tuesday, putting the turnout at 42 percent.

The opposition, however, has refused to accept the results, saying the turnout “was rigged.”

“It doesn’t correspond to reality. Turnout was well below 10 percent,” said Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who is the head of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party.

The FPI also rejected the new constitution, describing it as “not legitimate, because the people rejected it.”

The text, billed by President Alassane Ouattara, would drop a requirement that both parents of presidential candidates be native-born Ivorians. The divisive issue has for decades caused controversy in the county, where many people have family ties that straddle the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali.

The current constitution was drafted under military rule after a 1999 coup.

While the opposition accuses the president of using the changes to enable him to hand-pick his successor, Ouattara says they will guarantee more political stability in the country.

The new constitution creates a post of vice president. It also calls for the establishment of a senate and removes the age limit of 75 for presidential candidates.

Ouattara, 74, will be over the current age limit at the end of his current term. He won a five-year term with almost 84 percent votes in October.

The constitutional court must now validate the results of the referendum.

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