Key I. Coast poll deemed transparent, turnout fair at 60%

ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast's weekend presidential poll was deemed fair and transparent by international observers, boosting hopes the vote will seal the peace after years of upheaval in the world's top cocoa producer.
"The election will reflect the will of the people of Ivory Coast," said former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who headed an observer team from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
African Union (AU) observers agreed.
"From what we've seen, I believe we can, without the risk of making a mistake, conclude that it (the election) was well organised, that it was transparent," said Aminata Toure, the former Senegalese premier who headed the AU observer mission.
Turnout was lower than at the last election but appeared higher than expected at "around 60%", the national electoral commission's Kone Sourou told journalists Monday.
The election results are expected to be announced in the coming days.
The vote was the first since the country, then split in two, held a presidential election in 2010 that had been postponed six times and which unleashed months of violence in which some 3,000 people were killed.
A peaceful and credible election this time round was seen as crucial to help the west African nation recover its former status as a beacon of progress and prosperity in the region.
With the country now riding high on an economic boom and growth at around 9%, incumbent President Alassane Ouattara is tipped to win re-election over his six challengers in the country of 23 million people.
Turnout in 2010 stood at almost 80%, but with some of the opposition calling for a boycott and three leading contenders pulling out, observers had expected lower turnout on October 25.
The 2010-2011 crisis, which pitted Ouattara against former strongman Laurent Gbagbo, was the bloody epilogue to a decade of upheaval that split the country between a rebel-held north and a loyalist south.
A prominent economist and former deputy head of the International Monetary Fund, Ouattara was hoping for a solid first-round win.
The tall 73-year-old campaigned on having turned around the economy and assured stability after years of turmoil in the former French colony of 23 million.
Violence erupted after the 2010 poll when then president Gbagbo refused to concede defeat to Ouattara, the declared winner.
Ouattara was finally inaugurated president in 2011, and Gbagbo eventually ousted by French-backed pro-Ouattara forces.
Gbagbo is now in a Dutch jail awaiting trial next month for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Rights campaigners have said however that little justice has been meted out to members of Ouattara's camp over the 2010-11 violence.
Ouattara's main challenger was former prime minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan, who ran on behalf of Gbagbo's party, the Ivorian Popular Front.
Opposition figures cried foul ahead of the election with three of the original 10 candidates withdrawing. — AFP