Ivory Coast is holding a bitterly contested presidential election, the first since the civil war ended in 2011. “It could draw a line under the violence that exploded after the last election and cement Ivory Coast’s economic revival which has all happened under current President Alassane Ouattara who is heavily favoured to win this vote”, Al Jazeera’s Tania Page said, reporting from the capital Abidjan.
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Soldiers, police and gendarmes have been deployed across the country to secure the vote, although the large-scale violence which marred the 2010 election is not expected.
Ivory Coast voted in a presidential election Sunday expected to return incumbent Alassane Ouattara to power amid hopes of cementing peace after years of violence and upheaval.
Opposition figures have already cried foul this time around, with three candidates having withdrawn from the race, leaving Ouattara vying against six others.
Voting in most polling stations began at least an hour after the scheduled 7 a.m. opening time because voting booths weren’t ready or equipment didn’t work properly.
But Ouattara has come under criticism from Amnesty worldwide for the detention of opponents ahead of the vote, and rights campaigners have said little justice has been meted out to members of his camp over the 2010-11 violence.
Voting started one hour late at the school, and elsewhere, but local election official Kassoume Toure said all materials had been received.
Former Foreign Minister Amara Essy and former National Assembly President Mamadou Koulibaly also withdrew, alleging that the election was rigged to guarantee Ouattara’s victory.
In the classroom of a school in Abidjan’s Deux Plateaux neighbourhood, election officials held up ballots for candidates’ observers to scrutinise before tabulating the votes on a chalkboard.
Almost a third of computer tablets, part of new technology introduced to verify voters’ identities, also failed at a few point during election day, POECI said. BOYCOTT THREAT Voter turnout will be critical to legitimising Ouattara’s mandate if he wins as expected.
By 4:00 pm, only a quarter of voters had turned out at one of Yopougon’s polling stations.
In 2010, Ouattara defeated incumbent Laurent Gbagbo who refused to concede defeat, sparking the worst fighting the country has experienced since independence.
Former prime minister Charles Konan Banny dropped out of the running on Friday citing “serious irregularities” in the organisation of the vote.
Polling stations in pro-Gbagbo villages in the former president’s home region around the southwestern cocoa hub of Gagnoa were devoid of voters. Speaking to journalists after voting in the Cocody district of Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan, he said turnout could surpass the roughly 80 per cent of registered voters who cast ballots in 2010. Cocoa farmer Yves Titiro told Reuters, “My president is in prison”.
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Ouattara’s main challenger is former prime minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who is running on behalf of Gbagbo’s party, the Ivorian Popular Front. For these elections we are afraid to go vote.
