1995 Ivorian presidential election

1995 Ivorian presidential election

22 October 1995

Nominee Henri Konan Bédié Francis Wodié Party PDCI-RDA PIT Popular vote 1,837,154 75,699 Percentage 96.0% 4.0%

President before election Henri Konan Bédié PDCI-RDA Elected President Henri Konan Bédié PDCI-RDA

Presidential elections were held in Ivory Coast on 22 October 1995. They were boycotted by the main opposition parties, the Ivorian Popular Front and the Rally of the Republicans, in protest of new electoral rules that the opposition deemed unfair. Presidential candidates were required to have been born of two Ivorian parents, and to have been resident in the country for the previous five years. These provisions appeared to have been aimed at the RDR's intended candidate, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara. He had been in the United States since 1990 while working for the International Monetary Fund, and there had been longstanding rumors that his father had been born in Burkina Faso.

Incumbent Henri Konan Bédié thus faced only one opponent, Francis Wodié of the tiny Ivorian Workers Party. As President of the National Assembly, Bédié had served as interim president since the death of the country's founding leader, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, in 1993. Bédié was re-elected with 96.44% of the vote, with a turnout of 56.2%.

Results

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Henri Konan Bédié	Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally	1,837,154	96.0
Francis Wodié	Ivorian Workers' Party	75,699	4.0
Invalid/blank votes		52,822	-
Total		2,109,490	100
Source: Nohlen et al.