President Alassane Ouattara has won a fourth term in office after a landslide victory in Ivory Coast’s recently concluded presidential election.
According to provisional results announced on Monday by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the 83-year-old leader secured 89.77% of the total votes cast. His closest challengers, former commerce minister Jean-Louis Billon and ex-first lady Simone Gbagbo, received 3.09% and 2.42% respectively, IEC chairman Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert said.
Billon conceded defeat on Sunday, while Simone Gbagbo reportedly congratulated Ouattara on his victory.
The result came as little surprise to many Ivorians, following the exclusion of several heavyweight contenders from the race, including former president Laurent Gbagbo and ex-Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam.
Reacting to the outcome, Thiam dismissed the election as “not a real contest,” alleging that it was conducted “in a climate of fear and low participation.”
Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund (IMF) deputy managing director, has been widely credited with steering Ivory Coast through years of economic stability during his nearly 15 years in power.
The Ivorian leader has reiterated that this will be his final presidential term. With his victory, he joins the ranks of Africa’s long-serving heads of state, though he remains behind Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who at 92 recently won an eighth consecutive term after more than four decades in power.
Biya is currently the world’s oldest president and Africa’s second-longest-serving leader, after Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
