Ouattara re-elected president of Cote d’Ivoire

President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’ Ivoire has won a landslide victory in Ivory Coast’s presidential election, securing a second term in office.

Youssouf Bakayoko, president of the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), said Ouattara won a total of 2,118,229 votes, 83.66 percent of the ballots cast.

Pascal Affi N’Guessan, his main challenger who ran on the platform of Ivorian Popular Front — the party of former president, Laurent Gbagbo –  secured 9.3 percent votes in the election, boycotted by many opposition candidates.

Ouattara unseated Gbagbo in 2010 but the then president refused to concede the election, sparking a wave of violence that left around 3,000 people dead.

Before the official results were announced, the National Coalition for Change (CNC), which represents two presidential candidates, had put the turnout figure at 20 percent, calling the vote a “parody”.

Simeon Konan Kouadio, one of the six candidates who remained in the race to unseat Ouattara, said his campaign team had been informed of massive fraud.

But Kouadio has accepted the outcome of the election and congratulated Ouattara.

The president has been credited with reviving the economy of the war-scarred country, which is the world’s leading cocoa producer.