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Ouattara wins landslide fourth term as Ivory Coast president Janine2 Tue, 10/28/2025 - 07:15 ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast s President Alassane Ouattara has won a fourth term, securing a crushing 89.77 percent in a vote which his two greatest rivals were barred from, the electoral commission said.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 percent of the vote. Turnout was close to 100 percent 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. Entrepreneur Jean-Louis Billon came second to the veteran leader with 3.09 percent, said the commission s president Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly, who announced a 50.10 percent turnout -- a similar level to 2020, when Ouattara won 94 percent 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 percent of the vote but with a turnout rate of only 20 percent.The opposition has already denied any legitimacy to Ouattara and has called for new elections.

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