Presidential elections were held in

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

on 22 October 1995. They were boycotted by the main opposition parties, the

Ivorian Popular Front The Ivorian Popular Front (; abbr. FPI) is a centre-left, democratic socialist and social democratic political party in Ivory Coast. History FPI was founded in exile in 1982 by history professor Laurent Gbagbo, Aboudramane Sangaré, and oth ...

and the

Rally of the Republicans The Rally of the Republicans (; abbreviated RDR) is a liberal party in Ivory Coast (). The party is the country's governing party; the party's leader, Alassane Ouattara, is the current President of Ivory Coast. History The RDR, which has mos ...

, 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 Alassane Dramane Ouattara (; ; born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician and economist who has been List of heads of state of Ivory Coast, President of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) since 2010. An economist by profession, he worked for the I ...

. He had been in the United States since 1990 while working for the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

, and there had been longstanding rumors that his father had been born in

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

. Incumbent

Henri Konan Bédié Aimé Henri Konan Bédié (5 May 1934 – 1 August 2023) was an Ivorian politician. He was President of Côte d'Ivoire from 1993 to 1999, and formerly President of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast – African Democratic Rally (PDCI–RDA).< ...

thus faced only one opponent,

Francis Wodié Francis Vangah Romain Wodié (25 February 1936 – 3 July 2023) was an Ivorian politician, jurist, and human rights activist. He led the Ivorian Workers' Party (PIT) from 1990 to 2011. During that time, Wodié served as a Deputy in the National ...

of the tiny Ivorian Workers Party. As President of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

, Bédié had served as interim president since the death of the country's founding leader,

Félix Houphouët-Boigny Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was an Ivorian politician and physician who served as the first List of heads of state of Ivory Coast, pr ...

, in 1993. Bédié was re-elected with 96.44% of the vote.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

, Michael Krennerich & Bernhard Thibaut (1999) ''Elections in Africa: A data handbook'', p311

Results

The Constitutional Court annulled 143,845 of the 2,109,490 votes cast.

References

{{Ivorian elections

Ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

1995 in Ivory Coast Presidential elections in Ivory Coast