Ivory Coast presidential election begins amid a heated political atmosphere.
Ivory Coast’s presidential election began at 8:00 a.m. local time (11:30 a.m. ET) and will run until 6:00 p.m. 8.7 million people are eligible to vote, but turnout in the previous two elections was just above 50 percent.
The two-week campaign in the Ivory Coast’s presidential election began on Friday, with 83-year-old President Alassane Ouattara competing with four other candidates. Observers say the results will have important implications for stability in the West African country, which has been rocked by past political tensions.
Ouattara, who has been in power since late 2010, is seeking a fourth term, bringing his term to two decades. “We have seen tremendous growth, but we need to continue on this path,” Ouattara told supporters at his final campaign rally in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast’s economic capital, on Thursday.
Ouattara, an economist from 1968 to 1973 and deputy head of the International Monetary Fund from 1994 to 1999, has invested in the country’s public sector and infrastructure, driving annual economic growth of around 6 percent, with a booming cocoa industry. However, about 38 percent of the country’s 32 million people still live in poverty.
The ruling Houphouët-Boigny (RHDP) party officially nominated Ouattara as its candidate for the election earlier this year. Opposition figures, including Jean-Louis Bion, former commerce minister from the Congress of Democratic Forces (CDF), former first lady Simone Gbagbo, Henriette Lag,o and independent candidate Ahoua Don Miou, are also running. All of them have promised to create jobs and implement new agricultural policies, but analysts say they have little chance of unseating Ouattara. Ouattara’s opponents also accuse him of having too close ties with France, the Ivory Coast’s former colonizer.