By Hailey Brace '19
On October 25, 2015, the citizens of Ivory Coast cast their ballots in the country’s first presidential election since 2010. That was the year that current president Alassane Ouattara narrowly defeated incumbent Laurent Gbagbo; the results of the election were highly contested and even rejected by the Gbagbo administration. When Gbagbo refused to leave office, violence ensued, and 3,000 people were killed over the following five months of conflict. With the help of international armed forces, Gbagbo was eventually detained and imprisoned in The Hague. He faces trial this November in the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity for his actions during the post-election violence.Ouattara, the current president, is an economist and former top official at the International Monetary Fund. During his time as president of Ivory Coast, he has focused on economic development and job creation. One of his primary accomplishments as president has been improving the country's infrastructure. The Ouattara administration claims to have built or rehabilitated 21,000 km of roads since 2011. Ouattara's policies, however, have primarily affected urban areas, leaving those in the countryside without jobs, reliable power, or good roads. Furthermore, Ouattara's opponents criticize him for failing to alleviate poverty in Ivory Coast. Ouattara has vowed that, if re-elected, he will take action to decrease youth unemployment.Ouattara's most serious opponent in this election was Pascal Affi N'Guessan, former prime minister of Ivory Coast. N'Guessan is the candidate for the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), which is the same party that former president Gbagbo belongs to. However, many members of the FPI refused to vote for N'Guessan in the election, either because they wanted the incarcerated Gbagbo to be their candidate or because they were boycotting what they perceived to be a fixed election by the Ouattara administration. For these reasons, N’Guessan was not predicted to stand a chance of winning the election.For those citizens who did choose to turn out to the polls, tablet devices were used for the first time to verify their identities. Difficulties delivering and operating this technology caused some polling stations to open late. These locations were allowed to remain open later into the evening to make up for the late start.The most important thing to be noted about election day is that it occurred peacefully. Hopefully, this peace will continue now that the election results have been announced. Just a couple of days ago, Ouattara was declared the winner of the election; he won with a whopping 83.7% of the total vote. It will be interesting to see if he lives up to his word in his second term.Sources:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34580067http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34583521http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34630556http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34641418http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/ivory-coast-presidential-election-151025134237284.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/24/world/africa/ap-af-ivory-coast-election.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/25/world/africa/ap-af-ivory-coast-election.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/world/africa/jailed-ex-president-lingers-as-a-force-in-ivorian-vote.html?ref=topics