Ivory Coast electoral commission says Ouattara won 3rd term

Ivory Coast’s electoral commission says President Alassane Ouattara has overwhelmingly won a third term in office after his two main opponents boycotted the election

Ivory Coast Elections (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Ivory Coast's electoral commission said Tuesday that President Alassane Ouattara had overwhelmingly won a third term in office after his two main opponents boycotted the election.

Ouattara received 94.27% of the vote in Saturday's election, the commission said. The voter turnout figure was 53.90%, according to election officials, while the opposition has maintained only 10% of Ivorians took part.

Ouattara had been expected to easily win the election after leading opposition figures called on supporters to stay home. The opposition first tried to get Ouattara disqualified from seeking a third term but that legal effort failed.

The president has been in power for nearly a decade and initially said he would not run again, but changed his mind after his party's candidate died suddenly in July. He maintains that the two-term limit does not apply to him because of a constitutional referendum passed in 2016.

Tensions surrounding the vote have raised fears of post-election violence in the West African country, where more than 3,000 people died in 2010-2011 when then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat to Ouattara. The opposition says more than 30 people have died in violence related to Saturday’s vote.