Alassane Ouattara tightens control in Côte d'Ivoire as he seeks fourth term

He's at every street corner and in every format – on massive 4-by-3-meter billboards, on smaller posters pasted to walls, even emblazoned on cars. Alassane Dramane Ouattara, Côte d'Ivoire's incumbent president and candidate for a fourth term in Saturday's October 25 election, is omnipresent in Abidjan, the country's economic capital.

Against such a display of resources, the posters of his four rivals often paled in comparison. Some candidates, lacking alternatives, had to use the free posters provided by the Independent Electoral Commission – a less-than-flattering black-and-white portrait printed on poor-quality paper. In Côte d'Ivoire, where politics is driven more by money than by ideas, a candidate's chances of winning are measured first by the resources they can muster.

On that front, the ruling party, the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), had already stacked the deck before the race even began. Since the end of the 2010-2011 post-election crisis, Ouattara's party has been dominant. It now controls the vast majority of communes (123 out of 201), regions (25 out of 31) and holds a majority in the country's Assemblée (137 seats out of 255).

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