Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has swept to victory for a second term in a key vote aimed at drawing a line at years of violence and the 2011 civil war.
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Sunday’s turnout of almost 55 percent is considerably higher than in polls in 1995 and 2000 but falls well short of the 80 percent recorded during the hotly contested 2010 vote.
The former economist took power in 2011 after President Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat in a 2010 election to him. He is now awaiting trial earlier than the worldwide Criminal Court in The Hague accused of crimes towards humanity.
But Kouadio has accepted the outcome of the election and congratulated Ouattara.
The scale of his win hands Ouattara a strong mandate to carry on with policies broadly credited with helping Ivory Coast re-emerge as a rising African star while other countries’ economies crumble due to the global commodities crash. “I am happy to be able to walk down the street and see that there is no violence”.
The streets of the capital were quiet on Wednesday morning after the results were announced, in stark contrast to the violence that plagued Abidjan after the last vote. “Ivory Coast is resolutely committed to the path of stability and the reinforcement of democracy”. He needed more than 50 percent to avoid a runoff.
Election officials are glad that the vote passed off peacefully.
The New York Times reported that even before the elections were held, Ouattara was still the favorite candidate, thanks to the economic boom Ivory Coast has undergone during his presidency in the last five years.
Rivals introduced the nationalist concept of “Ivorian-ness” that barred anyone with a non-Ivorian parent and who had not lived in the country for the past five years from running for office.
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Ouattara did most of his schooling in Burkina Faso and later worked there, prompting accusations he was not sufficiently Ivorian.
