The recent Ivorian presidential election saw significantly poor participation among the diaspora community in Ghana, with a staggering 88.55% voter apathy recorded.

Out of a total of 1,432 registered Ivorian voters expected to cast their ballots at five designated centres across Ghana, only 164 individuals actually turned up to vote.

The election was conducted across four polling stations in Accra and one additional centre in Kumasi.

The extremely low turnout of just 164 votes disappointed agents of the various presidential candidates, who had anticipated higher participation from the large Ivorian community in Ghana.

Polling agents largely attributed the disappointing figures to the absence of many registered voters, most of whom are believed to be tertiary students who had returned to Côte d’Ivoire for vacation.

The vote counting process faced a brief delay after returning officers cross-checked the number of physical ballots cast against the verified voters’ list. A procedural hitch emerged:

It was discovered that the number of ballots cast exceeded the number of verified voters, delaying the collation process.

After intense deliberation involving candidate agents and election officials, an agreement was reached to ensure the integrity of the count. Ultimately, four disputed ballot papers were excluded from the final tally to maintain fairness.

The election in Ghana was officially supervised by the diplomatic representative of the Ivorian Electoral Commission, operating as a subsidiary of Côte d’Ivoire’s national election management body.

When the results from the five polling stations were finally tallied and validated, incumbent President Alassane Ouattara secured a decisive lead among the Ivorian diaspora voters in Ghana.

The high proportion of 41 blank ballots, representing 25% of the total votes cast, is a notable feature of the results, potentially reflecting a protest vote or political disengagement among a significant segment of the participating voters.

The transmitted results have been sent electronically to Abidjan and will undergo manual verification as part of the final national tally, raising questions about the extent of civic participation and political engagement among the Ivorian community residing outside the home country.