ABIDJAN – Ivory Coast’s electoral commission named Alassane Ouattara winner of the November 28th presidential election, a ruling the Constitutional Court said was invalid after the commission missed a deadline to announce results.
Mr Ouattara won 54.1 per cent, or 2.5 million votes, while President Laurent Gbagbo received 45.9 percent, or 2.1 million, said Youssouf Bakayoko, president of the electoral commission, in a statement handed out yesterday at a hotel in Abidjan, which Mr Ouattara had been using as his campaign base. Voter turnout was 81.1 per cent, Mr Bakayoko said.
The commission “is not capable of giving the results”, said Paul Yao N’Dre, president of the Constitutional Court, in a statement broadcast on state-controlled Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne.
Both candidates traded accusations of intimidation and fraud on election day, which Mr N’Dre said the court wanted to investigate before proclaiming its own outcome within the next seven days.
Observers from the European Union any problems were not significant enough to affect the outcome of the vote.
The election is meant to unite the world’s top cocoa grower, split since a 2002 military uprising between a rebel-held north and government-controlled south.
Supporters of Mr Ouattara, the 68-year-old former prime minister, began celebrating in the streets of Abidjan after the commission made its announcement.
“This is a very important day for the nation,” said Patrick Achi, a member of an opposition party that supported Mr Ouattara and a former minister of economic infrastructure.
The campaign was marred by violence that left several dead, including at least six people who were killed late yesterday at an Ouattara party office where a gunmen entered and opened fire. – (Bloomberg)