Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is on course to secure his third term as the country’s leader, amid cries of foul play from opposition leaders.
According to the official results, Ouattara secured all 20 of the districts announced from Saturday’s vote by the electoral commission, per AlJazeera. The country now awaits the results from the remaining 88 districts.
Leading opposition candidates, Pascal Affi N’Guessan and Henri Konan Bédié, have maintained that it is illegal for Ouattara to stand for a third term. Last month, the leaders were united in their call for voters to boycott the controversial elections.
“The electoral process under way does not concern us… we ask our supporters for an active boycott through all legal means,” N’Guessan told reporters last month. “We have decided to solemnly bring to the knowledge of all our voters, all our activists, and the people of Côte d’Ivoire, to the knowledge of national and international opinion, that the ongoing electoral process does not concern us in any way, that we are not at all concerned by this ongoing electoral process.”
“This electoral process is illegal, because it does not meet any international criteria, and that our activists – just like the Ivorian voters – should abstain from participating.”
Ouattara remains unmoved by claims that his re-election is both illegal and unconstitutional.
“I call on those who called for civil disobedience, which led to the loss of life, to stop,” Ouattara said in response to the boycotts. “They should stop because Ivory Coast needs peace, these are criminal acts and we hope that all this can stop, so that after the election this country may continue on its course of progress, which it has enjoyed over the last few years.”
The election has been marred with reports of violence against opposition parties — but Ouattara’s RHDP party has denied any involvement, his party publicly condemning the attacks on civilians, pointing the finger or suspicions back onto their critics.
“The RHDP, therefore, calls for the firmness of the authorities in our country,” Adama Bictogo, the Executive Director of the RHDP said. “And at this precise moment, we want to deplore the deaths, born of the aggressors of the opposition sponsored by the various opposition leaders who are Mr Affi N’Guessan, Guikahué, Mabris and others.”
