Côte d’Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast, was holding legislative elections on Saturday, two months after President Alassane Ouattara won re-election with his RHDP party.
Ouattara, 83, won his bid in an October vote to extend his 14-year rule, which has been accused of silencing opposition politicians through arbitrary arrests and election bans.
Protests demanding more free presidential elections were followed by a brutal police crackdown, leaving eleven people dead and dozens of opposition supporters jailed.
Opposition boycotted the vote
Despite the start of voting being delayed by an hour in the capital Abidjan due to torrential rain, voters lined up to pass their ballots in what observers considered a two-horse race between the ruling RHDP and the main remaining opposition party PDCI-RDA.
The RHDP is expected to retain its majority in the 255-seat assembly.
The opposition PPA-CI was boycotting the vote after former President Laurent Gbagbo, who is a party member, was barred from running in the October election.
“I don’t feel represented in the National Assembly,” 21-year-old student Assi Gilles Daras Aka told French news agency AFP. This reflects a sentiment shared by many opposition supporters, who have called for more fair elections.
Edited by: Louis Olofse