Ouattara Wins Second Term for Ivory Coast

The results are in: Alassane Ouattara (pictured) is the new president of the Ivory Coast, after winning 84 percent of the vote, according to the BBC.

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While there were five other contenders, the majority of them reportedly withdrew from the polls, which took place on Sunday, due to claims that the elections were neither free nor fair. By Monday, though, U.S. election observers declared that the election was credible.

Ouattara reportedly won 30 of 31 regions in the Ivory Coast, and in the North, he won nearly 100 percent of the vote.

Ouattara likely garnered enthusiastic support for reviving Ivory Coast’s economy, which hasn’t thrived since the 1970s, during his first term.

Still, voter turnout was much lower than the elections in 2010, where 80 percent of the population cast their vote compared with just 54 percent of the population in Sunday’s election.

For many Ivorians, though, there is said to be a palpable relief that this year’s elections were peaceful; in the last election, then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept Ouattara’s first win, triggering a civil war where 3,000 people were killed.

Gbagbo is currently at the Hague awaiting a war crimes trial before the International Criminal Court.

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