Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara was re-elected at the end of the first round of the presidential election of 25 October for a new term of five years, the Independent Election Commission (CEI) announced on 28 October.

Mr Ouattara, 73 years, garnered 83.66% of votes. He is largely ahead of Pascal Affi N’Guessan, representing the Front Populaire Ivorien (FPI) founded by ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, who received 9.29% of votes. A section of the FPI had called for a boycott as a show of allegiance to ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, who is still awaiting trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, in the Netherlands.

According to the CEI, the turnout was of 54.63% while a section of the opposition had called for a boycott.

An ex-senior official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), president Ouattara particularly boasts of a real economic success since his rise to power. Under his leadership, Côte d’Ivoire, top world producer of cocoa, renewed with high growth, about 9% per annum between 2012 and 2014, supported by massive public investments.

The opposition denounces, however, an unequal distribution of growth in a country where over 50% of the population still lives beneath the poverty line. Critics of Mr. Ouattara also put forward “very mixed results” in terms of transition justice and national reconciliation.

The 2015 election is a crucial moment for Côte d’Ivoire, after a decade of political and military crisis which ended with five months of deadly post-election violence from 2010 to 2011. This post-election crisis started with the refusal of Laurent Gbagbo to acknowledge his defeat at the last presidential election against Alassane Ouattara.