Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara has won a second five-year term with nearly 84 per cent of the vote, electoral commission officials say.
Ouattara won a total of 2,118,229 votes, or 83.66 per cent of votes cast, the commission said.
Turnout was 54.63 per cent.
Several opposition candidates pulled out of the campaign, complaining that it was not free and fair.
The last vote in 2010 was bitterly contested and resulted in a civil war in which 3,000 people lost their lives.
Ouattara required more than 50 per cent of the votes to avoid a run-off.
His closest opposition rival, Pascal Affi N’Guessan, got just 9 per cent.
Ouattara’s victory was announced by the chairman of Ivory Coast’s electoral commission.
In the 2010 vote, Ouattara defeated then-President Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to step down triggered months of violence in which thousands of people were killed.
Ouattara’s campaign this year centred around his economic programme.
Critics accused him of failing to foster reconciliation or reduce poverty.
The 54 per cent turnout was down from the 2010 first-round turnout of about 80 per cent.
BBC.
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