Ivory Coast President Alasane Ouattara has won a fourth term in an election from which his two biggest challengers were barred, provisional results show.
Ouattara, 83, won 89.8% of the vote, the electoral commission said on Monday, with businessman Gilles-Louis Billon coming in second with just 3.09%.
The landslide victory is not a huge surprise, as former President Laurent Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidgen Thiam called on their supporters to boycott the vote after being banned from the presidential race.
According to the Election Commission, the voting percentage has reached only 50.1%.
Monday’s results are provisional and the final result will be announced by the Constitutional Council after any election petitions are decided.
On Sunday, an opposition group made up of the parties of Gagbo and Thiam denounced the election as a “civil rebellion”, saying it would not recognize Ouattara as the legitimately elected leader.
Ouattara first assumed the presidency in 2011 following Gbagbo’s arrest after refusing to accept defeat in the 2010 election.
Ouattara was originally barred from serving two terms, but a 2016 constitutional amendment allowed him to seek re-election in 2020, which was boycotted by the opposition.
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