ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast's electoral commission said Tuesday that President Alassane Ouattara has overwhelmingly won a third term in office after his two main opponents boycotted the election and called his candidacy illegal.
In a sign of mounting tensions over the vote, both opponents said their homes had come under gunfire overnight. There have been widespread fears that post-election violence could erupt in Ivory Coast, where more than 3,000 people were killed a decade ago following a disputed vote.
The opposition coalition says more than 30 people have already died in violence linked to the Saturday election.
The streets of Abidjan remained calm in the early morning hours after the results were announced but it was unknown whether that would hold. The opposition on Monday night said that its call for civil disobedience was still in effect and told its supporters "to remain mobilized until the final victory."
The U.N. refugee agency reported that as of Tuesday more than 3,200 Ivorians had fled to Liberia, Ghana and Togo fearing post-electoral violence.
"I fear for the future. What's the point of giving the results of this election when practically all observers question the credibility? Can the re-election of a contested candidate heal the wounds of 2010? " Abidjan resident Mikael Koffi said Tuesday.
"Where are we going with the country so divided that the opposition does not recognize the results of the election on one side and the ruling party does not want to make concessions on the other?" he added.
Ouattara received 94.3% of the vote in Saturday's election, the commission said early Tuesday. Turnout was 53.9%, according to election officials, while the opposition has maintained only 10% of Ivorian voters took part.
Ouattara had been expected to easily win the election after leading opposition figures Pascal Affi N'Guessan and Henri Konan Bedie called on their supporters to stay home. According to official results released Tuesday, they received 0.99% and 1.66% of the votes, respectively. The only opposition candidate who still took part, Kouadio Konan Bertin, won 1.99% of the votes cast, the commission said.
Critics say Ouattara and his allies had shaped the race long before Election Day — 40 of the 44 potential candidates were disqualified from running, including former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and ex-President Laurent Gbagbo.
Voter Awa Coulibaly said she was happy for the reelection of her candidate, but she said the victory would have been better had his opponents taken part in the process.
"I urge President Alassane Ouattara to always reach out to the opposition by forming an open government," she said while shopping at a market in the Abobo neighborhood of Abidjan. "Ivory Coast must definitively turn the page on these electoral crises."
Ouattara has been in power for nearly a decade and initially said he would not run again, but changed his mind after his party's candidate died suddenly in July. He maintains that the two-term limit does not apply to him because of a constitutional referendum passed in 2016.
The 78-year-old president, who is popular with international donors, has said he was motivated to run again because of his love for his country. He has said it's unlikely he would seek re-election again in 2025.
The opposition first tried to get Ouattara disqualified from seeking a third term but that legal effort failed. On Monday, the opposition coalition signaled it would go ahead and form a transitional government despite the official results showing Ouattara headed toward re-election.
They insisted that Ouattara's mandate to lead Ivory Coast was now finished, and promised they would now start working on organizing "a fair, transparent and inclusive presidential election."
It wasn't immediately clear how the opposition could proceed with their plan given that the country's electoral commissions are heavily weighted with Ouattara supporters as is the constitutional council that is to certify official results from Saturday's election.
International election observers had said Monday that "a significant portion of the population did not vote," compared to previous presidential elections.
"These problems threaten public acceptance of the results and the country's cohesion," said a statement released by the observer mission carried out by The Carter Center and Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa.
Ouattara was the internationally recognized winner of the disputed 2010 election when then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat. Both men held their own inauguration ceremonies and the standoff persisted for months until pro-Ouattara forces captured Gbagbo from his underground bunker.
Gbagbo was later acquitted of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, though prosecutors are appealing. In the years since, critics say Ouattara's government has failed to bring about national reconciliation, concentrating prosecutions on the crimes committed by Gbagbo loyalists.
By KRISTA LARSON and TOUSSAINT N'GOTTA Associated Press
Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.
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