Ivory Coast's President Ouattara poised to win landslide poll victory

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara was poised to win a landslide victory and a second five-year term as partial results in last weekend's election released by the elections commission on Tuesday gave him a commanding lead over his rivals.

Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund official whose leadership has helped the West African nation re-emerge as a rising economic star following a 2011 civil war, is facing a divided opposition.

The incumbent won in all of the 17 regions and six communes of the commercial capital Abidjan included in a first wave of results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) on state television. He won outright majorities in all but one.

In his home department of Kong in the country's north, where over 14,000 voters cast ballots, Ouattara won all but 16 votes.

Ivory Coast is divided into 31 regions and the two autonomous districts of Abidjan and Yamoussoukro, the administrative capital. Elections officials said they expected to complete the announcement of results late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Sunday's vote was judged to be peaceful and transparent by observers, likely reassuring investor, who have flooded into the world's top cocoa grower, drawn by growth around 9 percent over the past three years.

"I would like to congratulate all Ivorians for their maturity and exemplary behaviour," Ouattara said on Tuesday. "Ivory Coast is resolutely committed to the path of stability and the reinforcement of democracy."

Pascal Affi N'Guessan, who heads ex-President Laurent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), appeared headed for a distant second-place finish.

Gbagbo's refusal to accept Ouattara's 2010 poll victory sparked the conflict that killed 3,000 people. He is now awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague accused of crimes against humanity.

Hardliners disavowed N'Guessan's candidacy and called for their supporters to boycott the polls and turnout was visibly lower in regions considered to be Gbagbo's traditional strongholds.

Three opposition candidates dropped out of the race in the days before the election, alleging it had been rigged and called upon voters to stay home. The CEI dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated.

Faced with a partial opposition boycott and concern over voter apathy, turnout will be critical to legitimise Ouattara's second five-year mandate if he wins.

A preliminary estimate of 60 percent turnout announced by the CEI on Monday appeared to allay fears that voters had stayed home on Sunday.

However, POECI, a civil society observer platform that is carrying out a parallel vote tabulation, said its data put turnout somewhat lower at 53 percent.

Simeon Konan Kouadio, one of the six candidates who remained in the race to unseat Ouattara, said his campaign team had been informed of massive fraud but offered no evidence.

Two candidates, Bertin Konan Kouadio and Jacqueline-Claire Kouangoua, conceded defeat on Monday even before official results began to emerge.

Results announced by the CEI must be validated by the constitutional court before they become official.

(Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Cynthia Osterman)