Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara has won a fourth term, securing a crushing 89.77 per cent in a vote which his two greatest rivals were barred from, the electoral commission said Monday.
Nearly nine million voters were eligible to cast their ballot Saturday in the world's top cocoa producer, which has resisted coups and jihadist attacks plaguing much of West Africa but which saw tensions soar and deadly violence in the run-up to the election.
Even before the provisional results' announcement, Ouattara was already anticipated to have swept the polls, after early tallies on Sunday showed him winning upwards of 90 per cent of the vote. Turnout was close to 100 per cent in his northern strongholds.
The political veteran was also ahead in traditionally pro-opposition areas in the south and parts of the economic hub Abidjan, where polling stations had been almost empty on Saturday.
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Entrepreneur Jean-Louis Billon came second to the veteran leader with 3.09 per cent, said the commission's president Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly, who announced a 50.10 per cent turnout - a similar level to 2020, when Ouattara won 94 per cent of the vote in an election boycotted by the main opponents.
This time around, Ouattara's leading rivals - former president Laurent Gbagbo and Credit Suisse ex-CEO Tidjane Thiam - were both barred from standing, Gbagbo for a criminal conviction and Thiam for having acquired French nationality.
"Their absence, their calls not to participate in the election, and the climate of tension that deteriorated in recent days foretold a significant demobilisation of the electorate," said William Assanvo, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
In the southern city of Gagnoa, Gbagbo's former stronghold, Ouattara won 92 per cent of the vote but with a turnout rate of only 20 per cent.
The opposition has already denied "any legitimacy" to Ouattara and has called for new elections.
Ouattara first came to power following the 2010-2011 presidential clash between him and Laurent Gbagbo, which cost more than 3,000 lives among their supporters.
On Monday, Abidjan returned to near-normal activity after the capital was unusually deserted over the weekend.
"The Ivorians said NO to prophets of doom," headlined the Patriote, a pro-Ouattara newspaper, praising "a calm election".
The opposition daily, Notre Voie, however, pointed to "an election reflecting a divided country".
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