ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Polls opened on Saturday in Ivory Coast to elect a new leader as President Alassane Ouattara seeks a fourth term after key contenders were banned from competing.
Polling stations opened shortly after 0800 GMT after initial delays. Some 8.7 million people registered to vote. Turnout has only been slightly above 50% in the last two elections.
The election is the latest example of how older men continue to hold power in Africa, which has the world’s youngest population. Cameroon’s 92-year-old Paul Biya, Uganda’s 81-year-old Yoweri Museveni and Equatorial Guinea’s 83-year-old Teodoro Mbasogo are other older African leaders still in power.
Five candidates are vying for Ivory Coast’s top job, but many see Ouattara, the 83-year-old leader of the world’s largest cocoa producer, retaining his position. If he wins, he would extend his term to almost two decades. Ouattara’s party, the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), also has the majority of seats in parliament, with 169 of 255 seats.
Ouattara has overseen the country’s economic reconstruction since the civil war, achieving a 6% annual growth rate backed by a cocoa boom. However, 37.5% of the country’s 30 million people still live in poverty and jobs are scarce for young people.
The build-up to the election has been marred by protests against the exclusion of key candidates who could pose a challenge to Ouattara’s ambitions. The final list of registered candidates did not include Tidjane Thiam, a former Credit Suisse executive, or Laurent Gbagbo, a former candidate who still retains the support of a large part of the voter base.
His supporters had taken to the streets, with several hundred people arrested and dozens imprisoned. This has raised the specter of past electoral crises that killed at least 3,000 people in 2010 and 2011 and nearly 100 in 2020.
The government also restricted the gathering of people, except for the five parties that participated in the elections, and deployed more than 40,000 security personnel throughout the country.
Ouattara has denied that any crackdown has been taken against the opposition.
Ouattara has attracted less scrutiny from the international community and from France, his former partner and former colonial ruler.
“The geopolitical context is favorable to it,” said Séverin Yao Kouamé, a research professor at the country’s University of Bouaké.
Kouamé said the international community and its former partner and former colonial ruler France currently have other priorities.
Four candidates are challenging Ouattara, including Simone Gbagbo, former first lady, and Jean-Louis Billion, former trade minister during Ouattara’s government. They have all promised jobs and new agricultural policies. Analysts have said that none of the other four candidates has a strong chance of winning.
At his final rally in Abidjan on Thursday, Ouattara told his supporters: “The growth has been enormous, but we have to continue.”
A former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Ouatarra’s investment in the public sector and infrastructure has endeared him to his followers.
Vote counting will begin immediately after polls close and provisional results are expected within 48 hours.