Alassane Ouattara wins 3rd term as Ivory Coast president

Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara won a third term on Tuesday, a victory that came after his opponents had urged followers to boycott the election.

Ouattara, 78, won 94% of the vote even though the 2016 Ivory Coast constitution limits the president to two terms. The government said 54% of eligible voters participated, but opponents put the figure at 10%.

Ouattara was expected to leave office this year but his intended replacement, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died in July. Ouattara then defied calls for him to keep his word to turn over the office to someone else, and ran again.

Officials rejected the qualifications of some 40 opposition candidates leading up to the election. Independent candidate Kouadio Konan Bertin won 2% of the vote.

Pascal Affi N'Guessan of the Ivorian People's Front and Henri Konan Bedie of the Democratic Party of Coted 'Ivoire told supporters to stay away from the polls, declaring the election unconstitutional.

Some fear post-election violence in Ivory Coast. When former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat to Ouattara in 2010 and 2011, some 3,000 people died because of violence that followed.