Ivory Coast's president wins controversial third term
Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara has provisionally won a third term with 94.27 percent of the votes, the country's electoral commission has declared, following an election boycotted by the opposition.
Kuibiert-Coulibaly Ibrahime, the head of the electoral commission, declared Ouattara the president of the republic early on Tuesday.
The country's constitutional council will confirm the results and declare the final winner after hearing potential challenges or complaints of irregularities.
According to the electoral commission, 53.90 percent of eligible voters turned out for the election, which was held on Saturday.
But the parties of two main opposition candidates said whole swathes of the country had refused to take part in the election.
The main opposition candidates, former president Henri Konan Bedie and ex-prime minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan, who had asked supporters to boycott the vote, have said they will not recognize the outcome of the election.
In a joint statement on Monday evening, Bedie and N'Guessan announced the creation of a transitional council headed by Bedie.
"The council will have a mission to prepare the framework for a credible and transparent presidential election. It will name a government in the coming hours," N'Guessan said in a press conference.
Opposition activists see Ouattara's bid for a third term as an illegal attempt to hold onto power as the country's constitution limits presidential terms to two.
But Ouattara says his two election wins under the old constitution do not count under the new constitution, which limits presidential terms and which was adopted in 2016.
The dispute led to clashes in the run-up to the vote, leaving at least 30 people dead. At least five more were killed on Saturday, officials said.
According to witnesses, gunshots were heard in Abidjan’s upmarket Cocody neighborhood on Monday.
Over 3,000 people were killed when a brief civil war erupted following a disputed election in 2010.
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