Ivory Coast is holding the first round of a presidential election Sunday.

Current President Alassane Ouattara, widely expected to win, said he wanted a “first-round knockout” victory.

More than 6 million Ivorians are registered to cast their ballots at around 20,000 polling stations, with voting officially beginning at 7 a.m. (0700 GMT).

Voting was delayed in many districts of the country’s largest city, Abidjan, as poll workers rushed to organize materials.

In the northern Abobo district, polling stations were still awaiting electronic tablets a couple hours after voting should have officially begun.

An elections commission official said the same problem had affected many polling stations in the area.

While few expect serious violence will mar the election, soldiers, police and gendarmes have been deployed across the country to secure the vote.

Important test

Sunday’s vote is seen as an important test for the country following post-election violence five years ago left at least 3,000 people dead.

Six candidates are challenging the 73-year-old president. Three other contestants have pulled out of the race, the latest one on Friday – former Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny.

Banny said the presidential election was tarnished by irregularities even before the first votes could be cast.

All the candidates who have withdrawn from the race claim the electoral commission is biased in favor of Ouattara and the list of voters has many double entries, a potential source of vote fraud.

The electoral commission said Friday it had investigated the allegations, but did not find any conclusive evidence.

Some material for this report came from AP and Reuters.
…