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President Alassane Ouattara, now 83, formally took the oath of office on Monday for his fourth term as Ivory Coast’s head of state, following an election from which his two principal rivals were barred.
In the October 25 poll, Ouattara secured nearly 90 percent of the vote, although national participation stood at a relatively modest 50.1 percent. Having governed since the deeply contested and violent 2010 election, he pledged at his inauguration to “loyally defend the constitution.”
The ceremony drew leaders from 11 African nations, alongside former heads of state such as Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou. France, the country’s former colonial power and a long-standing partner, was represented by National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet.
The United States also dispatched a high-level delegation, sending Jacob Helberg, the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, who was scheduled to meet President Ouattara later in the day.
Absent from the ballot — and central to the political tensions surrounding the election — were Ouattara’s two major opponents: Laurent Gbagbo, barred due to a criminal conviction, and Tidjane Thiam, excluded over nationality-related questions.
