Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara secured a fourth term with a commanding re-election win, according to provisional results announced on Monday, an outcome that was largely expected after his strongest opponents were deemed ineligible.
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The 83-year-old former international banker won 89.77 per cent of the vote, his third consecutive decisive victory after the much closer election that brought him to power in 2011.
His predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to acknowledge defeat in that race, sparking a four-month war that killed around 3,000 people.
Ouattara has since overseen a period of relative stability and steady economic growth in the world’s biggest cocoa producer.
Former commerce minister Jean-Louis Billon, who acknowledged his defeat to Ouattara on Sunday, received 3.09 per cent of the vote, while former first lady Simone Gbagbo received 2.42 per cent, according to the results read on state television by Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert, president of the electoral commission.
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