Ivory Coast 2 min read

Ivory Coast heads to the polls for presidential elections

Source: France 24

Updated 3 hr ago

The Ivory Coast heads to the polls on Saturday. Five candidates – among them President Alassane Ouattara – are competing for the top job, while several key rivals have been excluded from the race.

Ivory Coast is voting to elect a new leader Saturday as longtime President Alassane Ouattara seeks a fourth term.

Polling stations began opening at 8am local time (0800 GMT) and will close at 6pm, with nearly 9 million people eligible to vote.

In the densely populated neighbourhood of Treichville, people looked very eager to cast their ballot and some of them had arrived as early as 6am, FRANCE 24 journalist Justice Baidoo reported.

Justice Baidoo, FRANCE 24 Journalist, Abidjan, Ivory Coast on October 25, 2025. © FRANCE 24

Vote counting is expected to begin immediately after polls close but results are not expected before early next week.

Ouattara, the 83-year-old leader of the world’s biggest cocoa producer, is being challenged by four other candidates for the country's top job: Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, a former first lady; Jean-Loius Billion, a former commerce minister under Ouattara; Ahoua Don Mello, a civil engineer and independent Pan-African; and Henriette Lagou, a moderate who also stood in the 2015 presidential poll.

All have promised to create jobs and implement new agricultural policies.

Ivory Coast has achieved an annual growth rate of 6 percent backed by a boom in cocoa. However, 37.5 percent of the country’s 30 million people still live in poverty, and jobs are scarce for young people.

If Ouattara wins it would extend his rule to almost two decades. His party, the Rally of Houphouetistes for Democracy and Peace, also holds a majority of seats in parliament with 169 out of 255.

The build-up to the election has been marred by protests against the exclusion of major candidates, including Tidjane Thiam, a former Credit Suisse executive, and Laurent Gbagbo, a former president (2000-2010) who still retains the support of a large section of the voter base.

Their supporters have taken to the streets, with several hundred people arrested and dozens jailed. The unrest raised the specter of past electoral crises that killed at least 3,000 people in 2010-2011 when Gbagbo refused to step down and at least 100 people in 2020. The government also restricted people from gathering outside the headquarters of the five parties contesting the election and deployed more than 40,000 security personnel across the country.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)