…As Muslims in Athens finally get mosque***
President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire has been re-elected for a third term with more than 94.27 per cent of votes, the country’s electoral commission said on Tuesday.
Ouattara’s key rivals, Konan Bedie and Pascal Affi N’Guessan received 1.66 per cent and 0.99 per cent of votes respectively, the commission said.
Both opposition politicians say Ouattara’s third-term bid is unconstitutional and had called on their supporters to boycott the Oct. 31 election.
The fourth candidate, Konan Kouadio Bertin, who counted as an outsider, received 1.99 per cent of the vote.
The commission placed voter turnout at 53.9 per cent, with the results still having to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council.
The West African cocoa producer’s election has been feared to cause unrest and threaten political stability, with more than 20 people killed in violence in the run-up to the poll, according to Human Rights Watch.
Ouattara, who has been in power since 2011, initially promised he would step down after his second term.
The 78-year-old, however, announced his candidacy in August, a month after the sudden death of his anointed successor, former Prime Minister Amadou Coulibaly.
Cote d’Ivoire’s constitution allows for only two five-year presidential terms, but Ouattara’s Rally of the Republicans party argues a 2016 constitutional amendment has reset the clock.
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In the meantime, the first Mosque in the Greek capital Athens opened after 14 years of wrangling and bureaucratic delays, local media reported on Tuesday.
Held amid coronavirus restrictions, the first prayer on Monday evening was modest and joined by only a handful of people.
A bigger celebration is expected to be held after the pandemic.
The opening of the mosque sends a clear message of democracy, religious freedom and respect, the government secretary for religious issues, Giorgos Kalantzis was quoted by Kathimerini newspaper as saying.
Opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church had delayed the opening of the mosque since 1979.
It took years even after the government gave the go-ahead in 2006.
The first imam is Moroccan-born Greek national Zaki Mohammed, Mohammed studied theology and mathematics and speaks Arabic, Greek and French.
The vast majority of Greeks, 97 per cent, are Orthodox Christians.
However, there is a Muslim minority concentrated along the land border with Turkey and tens of thousands of Muslim workers and refugees who live in the country.
dpa
