Côte d'Ivoire's ruling party has won 77 percent of the seats in parliament, further consolidating its power two months after the re-election of Alassane Ouattara as president, according to results announced on Monday.
The Independent Electoral Commission said the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) won 197 of the 255 seats – 34 more than in the outgoing National Assembly.
Ouattara won his fourth mandate in October with nearly 90 percent of the vote – in a presidential election that excluded the two main opposition figures, who were removed from electoral lists.
In power since 2011, Ouattara will now have control over all of the country's institutions, as his party has an even larger majority in the Senate and leads in 80 percent of regions.
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Low turnout
Saturday's turnout at the parliamentary elections was 35 percent – two points lower than in 2021. Turnout was also low at the presidential elections, with one in two voters abstaining.
As expected, the RHDP party swept the country in the north, its historical stronghold dominated by Ouattara's Malinke ethnic group, with scores sometimes at 100 percent.
But the party also consolidated its foothold in the southern and western regions, which have historically been favourable to the opposition.
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Boycott
The main opposition Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI-RDA), led by Tidjane Thiam, saw its number of parliamentary seats halved from 66 to 32.
Jean-Claude Agnéro, a member of the Political Bureau for PDCI, said this result stemmed from "a problem of internal leadership" within the party.
"Within our ranks, there is turmoil, dissidents, and this has caused us harm," he told RFI's correspondent in Abidjan. As a result, "some PDCI members expressed their discontent by not voting for the party," he said.
Another deputy, who chose to speak anonymously, told RFI that the party had "a bad strategy", adding that several influential activists, such as Maurice Kakou Guikahué, were excluded from the party list.
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The other major opposition party, the African People's Party – Côte d'Ivoire (PPA-CI) of former president Laurent Gbagbo, had called for a boycott of the election and did not field any candidates.
Twenty-three members of parliament were elected as independents, but many are dissidents from the RHDP who could vote with the majority for the next five years.
The head of the electoral commission, Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly, said the vote was "generally conducted in accordance with the laws and regulations in force, notwithstanding some acts of violence and irregularities which had no bearing on the integrity of the electoral process".
(with AFP)
