Ivory Coast president re-elected for third term — after constitution was altered

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has been re-elected for a third term.

The election commission made the announcement on Tuesday morning.

Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert, election commission president, said Ouattara won 94 percent of the vote and that turnout in the election was 53.9 percent.

“The President Alassane Ouattara has been elected,” Coulibaly-Kuibiert, said.

Ouattara who is 78-year-old was first elected in 2010.

The Ivorian president had said after his second term he would make way for a new generation of leaders, but he later said he would seek a third term after the death of Prime Minister Amadou Coulibaly, his preferred successor, in July.

He said a constitutional court ruling in 2016 made him eligible to run again, and allowed him to reset the country’s two-term presidential limit.

The voting exercise was reportedly marred by unrest and a boycott by two leading opposition leaders who promised to set up a rival transitional government.

Quatarra’s third term bid had sparked off protests and violent clashes before the election.

The opposition had accused him of carrying out an “electoral coup”.

On Monday, opposition leaders said they would create a transitional government which would organise a new election.

Pascal N’Guessan and Henri Bédie, main opposition candidates, had asked their supporters not to vote during the election.

They said Ouattara’s mandate was over as he had broken the country’s two-term presidential limit.

“The opposition parties and groups announce the creation of a council of national transition,” N’Guessan had said.

“This council’s mission will be to… create a transitional government within the next few hours.

“Keeping Mr Ouattara as head of state could lead to civil war. ”

Ouattara had won a long-postponed election in 2010.

Laurent Gbagbo, his predecessor, refused to accept defeat, turning Abidjan, the country’s capital, into a battleground.

French forces were called in to intervene and to help Ouattara’s loyalists oust the former president.