Former Commerce Minister Billon admits defeat to Ouattara in the Ivory Coast race

Jean-Louis Billon, the former commerce minister of Ivory Coast, said in a statement on Sunday that he had accepted defeat to Alassane Ouattara in the presidential election. This was because early results showed that Ouattara had a large lead in many areas.

Billon was one of four candidates from the opposition who ran against Ouattara, who is running for a fourth term and used to be the deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Billon attempted to obtain the support of the opposing PDCI party, but failed. The PDCI party is led by Tidjane Thiam, a former CEO of Credit Suisse who was found not qualified to run in Saturday’s election in the largest cocoa grower in the world.

“The early results put the incumbent President, Mr. Alassane Ouattara, in the lead, making him the winner of this presidential election,” Billon said in a statement, congratulating Ouattara, who is 83 years old.

Ouattara is the clear favorite in the race, which went off without a hitch.

Within five days, we should have provisional results.