The ruling party in Ivory Coast was headed for a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, according to early results announced Sunday which already credit it with an outright majority in the national assembly.The voting, carried out on Saturday, was marked by a poor turn-out following a boycott call by opposition parties.The election came two months after 83-year-old Alassane Ouattara won a presidential ballot that extended his 14-year rule.The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) said early on Sunday the provisional participation rate was 32.34 percent, lower than the previous legislative elections in 2021 when turnout was 37.88 percent.More than eight million people were registered to vote for members of the national assembly, where lawmakers from the ruling RHDP party already hold a majority.With results in from nearly two thirds of the 255 contested parliamentary seats Sunday evening, the RHDP already had the 128 deputies needed for an absolute majority.The party even did well in the south and west of the country where the opposition had strongholds.Its candidates in the new poll included Prime Minister Robert Beugre Mambe.Tene Birahima Ouattara, a brother of the president and defence minister, won in the Abobo district of Abidjan, the economic capital.The PPA-CI party of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was banned from the presidential vote because of a criminal conviction, boycotted the legislative election.About 20 members of his party were standing, however, as independent candidates.The 255-seat national assembly is voted in every five years.In October, Ouattara won with nearly 90 percent of votes cast in an election in which most opposition figures were excluded.
