Vote counting under way in Ivory Coast as Ouattara victory expected

Vote counting is under way in Ivory Coast after a contentious presidential election, with longtime incumbent Alassane Ouattara widely expected to win a fourth term.

Nearly nine million Ivorians were registered to vote on Saturday in a race that saw five contenders vying for the presidency.

Opposition heavyweights were not running for the post, however, as former President Laurent Gbagbo was barred over a criminal conviction and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam was disqualified for acquiring French citizenship.

Critics said the exclusion of key candidates gave Ouattara, 83, an unfair advantage and essentially cleared the way for him to secure another term in office.

Voter turnout was expected to be key, according to experts, as the opposition had called for a boycott of the election.

Reporting from the country’s largest city, Abidjan, on Saturday evening, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said that turnout had increased significantly throughout the day.

“In the early hours of voting, we saw some kind of apathy. But as the day wore on, we saw numbers picking up across the city,” Idris said. “And that’s the same story that we’ve been hearing from other parts of the country.”

None of Ouattara’s four rivals represented an established party, nor did they have the reach of the governing Rally of Houphouetistes for Democracy and Peace (RHDP).

Agribusinessman and former Trade Minister Jean-Louis Billon, 60, hoped to rally backers from his former Democratic Party, while former First Lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, 76, was looking to garner votes from supporters of her ex-husband.

The left-wing vote, meanwhile, hung in the balance between Gbagbo and Ahoua Don Mello, a civil engineer and independent Pan-African with Russian sympathies.

Henriette Lagou Adjoua, one of the first two women to run for the presidency during the 2015 election, represented a centrist coalition, the Group of Political Partners for Peace.

At the Riviera Golf 1 Primary School in Abidjan, the atmosphere appeared calm as the first voters began to queue in the early hours of Saturday.

“This vote means a lot to us,” Konate Adama told Al Jazeera. “We need a candidate to emerge from these elections. It will lead us towards peace, wisdom and tranquillity.”

Controversial fourth term

About 8.7 million people above age 18 were eligible to vote in the country of 33 million.

To win, a candidate must take an absolute majority of the votes. A second round will take place if no one clears that hurdle.

Results are expected early next week, and observers forecast Ouattara to win the more than 50 percent needed to secure victory in the first round.

The octogenarian has wielded power in the world’s top cocoa producer since 2011, when the country began reasserting itself as a West African economic powerhouse.

Under the constitution, presidents may serve a maximum of two terms. Ouattara has argued, however, that a major constitutional change implemented in 2016 “reset” his limit.

The decision has angered his detractors. Opposition and civil society groups also complain of restrictions on Ouattara’s critics and a climate of fear.

About 44,000 security forces were deployed across the country to keep protests in check, especially in opposition strongholds in the south and west.

A night-time curfew was in place on Friday and Saturday in the region where the political capital, Yamoussoukro, is located.

Authorities said they want to avoid “chaos” and a repeat of unrest surrounding the 2020 presidential election. According to official figures, 85 people died then, while the opposition said there were more than 200 deaths.

Opposition parties have encouraged Ivorians to protest against Ouattara’s predicted fourth term. On Monday, an Independent Electoral Commission building was torched.

The government has responded by banning demonstrations, and the judiciary has sentenced several dozen people to three years in prison for disturbing the peace.

In 2010, the country was plunged into a conflict that killed at least 3,000 people after the presidential election between Gbagbo and Ouattara.