- Title: IVORY COAST: Polling stations in Abidjan open for Presidential run-off vote
- Date: 29th November 2010
- Summary: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (NOVEMBER 28, 2010) (REUTERS) WOMAN VOTING ABIDJAN RESIDENT, MAMBO AIME, VOTING VOTING DOCUMENTS (SOUNDBITE) (French) ABIDJAN RESIDENT, MAMBO AIME, SAYING: "We are going to keep calm and serene waiting for the result. No matter who will win, he's going to be the president of Ivory Coast and we should all accept him." PEOPLE QUEUING OUTDOORS, WAITING TO VOTE ELECTION OBSERVER WALKING IN COURTYARD ARMY SECURITY GUARDS IN COURTYARD VARIOUS MORE OF PEOPLE QUEUING IVORY COAST FLAG SOLDIER AT POLLING STATION UNITED NATIONS SOLDIERS WALKING UP TO POLLING STATION WITH PEOPLE WAITING OUTSIDE PEOPLE WAITING VARIOUS OF U.N. SOLDIER TALKING TO ELECTORAL AGENTS INSIDE POLLING STATION U.N. SOLDIERS DRIVING DOWN ROAD IN PICK UP TRUCK
- Embargoed: 14th December 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Cote d'Ivoire
- Country: Ivory Coast
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVACCJF0XU22SFS6OT3AEIOJ5KGL
- Story Text: Residents of Abidjan vote in Ivory Coast's tense presidential run-off, United Nations soldiers visit polling stations.
Polls opened in Ivory Coast on Sunday (November 28) for a presidential election run-off with fears of violence marring hopes that the vote will draw a line under a decade of political crisis and economic stagnation.
Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, a former history professor, faces Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister and senior IMF official, in a race that is too close to call and has rekindled simmering tensions in the divided country, the world's top cocoa grower.
"We are going to keep calm and serene waiting for the result. No matter who will win, he's going to be the president of Ivory Coast and we should all accept him," said Mambo Aime, a man from Abidjan.
Observers from the United Nations to Ivory Coast went from polling station to polling station talking to electoral agents and crowds waiting to vote.
Gbagbo and Ouattara won 38 and 32 percent of the first round vote respectively. The race to secure the presidency has brought back to the fore a north-south divide that was at the heart of the war and subsequent delays in holding polls.
A successful poll should pave the way for reforms to help an ailing cocoa sector and lead to further investment in a nation that was once West Africa's brightest prospect but whose economy has been weighed down by years of political uncertainty. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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