Ivory Coast votes for president amid ‘boycott’

Bloomberg

Ivorians began voting on Saturday in presidential elections the main opposition parties have urged their supporters to boycott because President Alassane Ouattara is seeking a third term in office.
Ouattara, 78, looks to be a shoo-in for re-election. He is running against independent candidate Bertin Konan Kouadio, who received less than 4% of ballots in 2015.
While Ouattara’s former ruling coalition partner, ex-President Henri Konan Bedie, 86, and Pascal Affi N’Guessan, the leader of a smaller opposition party, appear on the ballot paper, they’ve asked voters to stay away because they consider the third-term bid unconstitutional.
“I don’t want to regret not voting, but actually it’s already done,” Drissa Tiote, a 37-year-old car mechanic, said as he prepared to cast his ballot in the Abobo neighbourhood of the commercial capital, Abidjan. “The president is working for the Ivorians. If he stays in power, there will be stability and growth.”
Bedie backed Ouattara in a second-round vote in 2010 and again in 2015, but the two fell out two years ago when Ouattara first said that a new constitution adopted in 2016 reset the clock and allowed him to seek another mandate. Bedie wanted a candidate from his own Democratic Party of Ivory Coast to succeed Ouattara.
The run-up to the elections has been marred by sporadic violence that the government has blamed on the opposition calling for a civil disobedience campaign. At least 16 people were killed in the town of Dabou, 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of Abidjan in October. The government has deployed about 35,000 security agents nationwide.
Turnout was low in some opposition strongholds in Abidjan. Polling stations
didn’t open altogether in Daoukro, where Bedie hails from, Olivier Akoto, a lawmaker representing the city, said by phone.