Ivory Coast's 83-year-old outgoing president wins re-election in landslide victory

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has won a fourth term in office with a landslide victory following Saturday's presidential election, according to provisional results released Monday by the Independent Electoral Commission.

The 83-year-old former international banker won 89.77 percent of the vote, maintaining his long record of decisive victories since first coming to power in 2011. The commission said that approximately nine million people were eligible to vote, although only half of them turned out to vote.

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Observers say turnout was similar to participation seen in the 2010 and 2015 presidential elections, yet far below the nearly 80 percent who voted during the first round in 2010. In northern strongholds, where support for the president remains strong, turnout was nearly 100 percent in some areas.

The results are expected to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council in the coming days. Former Commerce Minister Jean-Louis Billon congratulated the president on Sunday after early data showed Ouattara having a strong lead across the country.

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Ouattara's government points to more than a decade of relative stability and steady economic growth in the world's largest cocoa-producing country as evidence of the public's continued confidence in it. The country has become more attractive to investors since the political crisis in the early 2010s, although critics say many Ivorians have not seen substantial improvements in daily living conditions.

Under the current Constitution, the President is limited to two terms. The president and his supporters argue that the adoption of a new constitution in 2016 reset the clock, allowing him to govern again in both 2020 and 2025. Opponents say this interpretation weakens constitutional safeguards and risks undermining democratic norms.

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Electoral Commission President Ibrahime Coulibaly Cuibbiart reiterated that voting had gone smoothly and said the turnout data reflected voter preferences rather than any systemic problem.

The political opposition has not yet issued a unified response to the latest results.