Ouattara Secures a Fourth Term in Ivory Coast After Rivals Excluded From the Ballot

Alassane Ouattara has extended his hold on power in Ivory Coast, winning a fourth presidential term with 89.7 percent of the vote in an election that critics say was decided long before polling day by the exclusion of his most serious rivals.

The 83-year-old president faced a field weakened by the disqualification of Tidjane Thiam and former president Laurent Gbagbo, two of the opposition's most credible challengers. Their absence from the ballot left Ouattara facing minimal genuine competition, a dynamic reflected in the lopsided result and in the low turnout and empty streets reported in the economic capital, Abidjan, on election day.

Ouattara's path to a fourth term rests on a contested legal foundation. A 2016 constitutional referendum reset presidential term limits, and in 2020 Ouattara argued that the new constitution reset his own term count to zero — a claim his opponents rejected at the time and continue to view as a pretext for extending his rule well beyond what many Ivorians believed had been agreed.

The political controversy plays out against a genuine security backdrop. Jihadist groups active in the Sahel have increasingly threatened Ivory Coast, along with neighbouring Benin and Togo, as militant violence pushes southward from its traditional strongholds. The country has also registered more than 70,000 refugees fleeing violence in Burkina Faso, adding humanitarian strain to the security concerns.

For Ouattara, a fourth term offers continuity at a moment of regional instability; for his critics, it represents another instance of a long-serving African leader bending constitutional rules to remain in office. With a weakened opposition and a security threat growing at the country's borders, Ivory Coast's next chapter looks set to be shaped as much by the president's grip on power as by the challenges he must now confront.