Ivory Coast holds long-awaited vote

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Eight years after civil war tore the world’s top cocoa producer in two, Ivory Coast finally held a long-awaited presidential ballot Sunday that millions of people here are praying will reunite the country and restore desperately needed stability.

But many fear the poll could herald a new era of unrest if political rivals, powerful militias or still-armed rebels don’t accept the outcome.

“There is a mixture of hope and fear among us all,” 50-year-old civil servant Eliane Bah said after casting her ballot.

Though voting was peaceful, ballot counting could prove highly contentious. Angry, machete-wielding youth backing both the ruling and opposition parties have a history of taking violently to the streets here when political fortunes don’t go their way.

The 65-year-old incumbent, President Laurent Gbagbo, has been in power since 2000, when tens of thousands of militant supporters launched mass protests to prevent the late junta leader Robert Guei from stealing the country’s last vote.

Gbagbo’s mandate officially expired five years later, but he has stayed in office since.

On Sunday, he faced 13 challengers. The heavyweights among them are 68-year-old opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, who is wildly popular in the pro-rebel north, and 76-year-old ex-President Henri Konan Bedie, who was toppled in 1999 when the nation’s first coup triggered an epoch of turmoil and economic decline.

If no candidate wins a simple majority, the top two finishers will face off in a second round Nov. 28.