Ivory Coast's Ouattara secures fourth term with landslide election win

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara secured a fourth term with a commanding reelection win, according to provisional results announced on Monday, an outcome that was largely expected after his strongest opponents were deemed ineligible.

The 83-year-old former international banker won 89.77% of the vote, his third consecutive decisive victory after the much closer election that brought him to power in 2011.

His predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to acknowledge defeat in that race, sparking a four-month war that killed around 3,000 people.

Ouattara has since overseen a period of relative stability and steady economic growth in the world's biggest cocoa producer.

Former Commerce Minister Jean-Louis Billon, who acknowledged his defeat to Ouattara on Sunday, received 3.09% of the vote, while former first lady Simone Gbagbo received 2.42%, according to the results read on state television by Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert, president of the electoral commission.

Simone Gbagbo called Ouattara on Monday to congratulate him on his victory, a source told Reuters.

The turnout of around 50% was comparable to the presidential elections in 2010 and 2015 but far below the 80% who voted in the first round in 2010.

Laurent Gbagbo and Tidjane Thiam, former CEO of Credit Suisse, were not legally permitted to run this year, and the remaining opposition candidates lacked the backing of a major political party, making Ouattara the clear favourite.

"There was no point in voting. Everything was put in place for Ouattara to win these elections. Candidates Thiam and Laurent Gbagbo were eliminated. There was nothing at stake," said Arsene Kanga, a machinist at a cooking oil production company in Abidjan.

Since the war that followed the 2010 election, many Ivorians have soured on political engagement more broadly, said Rinaldo Dipagne, deputy director of the Africa program for International Crisis Group.

"People saw that they didn't have a future with politics, or they couldn't imagine that politics would bring positive change to the country," he said.

The Constitutional Council is expected to validate the electoral commission's results in the coming days.

EYE ON NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS

Ouattara, a former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has said that in a fourth term he would continue growing the economy and attracting private investment.

He also vowed to use a fourth term to facilitate a passing of the torch to a new generation of political leaders.

There is no clear successor at the moment and the ruling party is riven with division.

If Ouattara fails to appoint one, Dipagne said, the country could face the same kind of crisis that followed the death of founding President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, marked by political vitriol and armed conflict.

The election unfolded without major disruption on Saturday, after days of scattered protests in locations including Yamoussoukro, the political capital, where authorities imposed a curfew on Friday night.

The government deployed 44,000 members of the security forces and enforced what Amnesty International said was a disproportionate ban on protests.

Hundreds were arrested, and the Interior Ministry said dozens had received prison terms of up to three years for offences including disturbing public order.

Government spokesperson Patrick Achi, a former prime minister, told Reuters last week that the government protected freedom of speech but was also determined to maintain order.