Electorates in Ivory Coast await results of presidential election

Ivory Coast officials prepared to tally results Sunday after a tense presidential ballot marked by an opposition boycott and protests over President Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a third term.

Scattered protests, clashes, vandalised voting material and some closed polling stations were reported mostly in opposition strongholds during Saturday’s election although Ouattara had called for calm and his party was expecting a win.

At least 30 died in clashes in the lead-up to the vote, reviving fears for many Ivorians over a repeat of the West African nation’s 2010-2011 post-election crisis when 3,000 people were killed.

Tensions erupted in August when Ouattara, in power for ten years, announced he would run for a third term, angering opposition leaders who dismissed it as an unconstitutional “electoral coup”.

Opposition leader Henri Konan Bedie, an old Ouattara adversary, had called for an active boycott and a campaign of civil disobedience to halt or disrupt the election.

“October 31 was not the deluge as the leaders of the opposition forecast,” Adama Bictogo, a senior ruling party official, said after the election.

“The popular will was expressed and all the opposition did for months was defend the idea of not holding elections.”

Electoral officials have up to five days to release the results and it was not clear when the CEI election commission planned an announcement.

AFP

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