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| Election officials start to count ballots during the presidential election in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Oct. 31, 2020. |
Vote counting is underway following Ivory Coast’s tense presidential election on Saturday.
President Alassane Ouattara is trying his luck for a contested third term, leading to two opposition candidates calling for a boycott and labelling the vote as a “failure” of power.
Official numbers on voter turnout have not been released but according to media reports, it was low.
But the ruling Rally of Houphouรซtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) said voters come out “massively”.
“October 31 was not the day of the flood as predicted by all the opposition leaders, but better, Ivorians have appropriated this election by going to vote massively this morning,” said Adama Bictogo, executive director of ruling RHDP.
The Electoral Commission President Ibrahime Kuibiert-Coulibaly said there were some local problems at polling stations but that only 30 or 40 of them had been ransacked out of 22,000 nationwide.
He did not say the number of polling stations that were not opened.
Electoral authorities by law have up to five days to announce the results.
