Ivory Coast: Choosing New President to reunite the country

Two modes of transmission and counting results are expected. An and a manual mode with the support of UNOCI peacekeepers, who will manage the physical delivery from about 20,000 polling stations  of the 415 local election centers in Abidjan and the CIS.

Except a mess, the IEC will announce the provisional results – at least 72 hours after the closure of the polling stations – which means Wednesday in the afternoon. Many observers fear that one of the three favorites – Laurent Gbagbo, Henri Konan Bédié and Alassane Ouattara – proclaims himself a winner in this first round, enough to push the others candidates’ supporters to take the streets. Privately, diplomats and international officials, in Abidjan hope there will be a second round; it will cushion the blow a bit for the losers. If no one wins an outright majority in this first round, there will be a second-round runoff between the top two finishers that will take place November 28. The Ivory Coast and its people deserve a good end to the ten years of a political crisis that have gradually undermined the morale of investors and business partners. Some socio-economic indicators are frightening. The average poverty rate has increased fivefold between 1985 and 2010. An Ivory Coast out of two is considered poor. Four million young citizens, of a total population of 21 million are unemployed. The Ivorian economy is slowing and its agriculture, one of the main first vectors of growth has slowed net, due to years of mismanagement. If mining activities (oil, manganese, iron and cupper) has great potential, the private enterprise spirit has been seriously damaged because of the political crisis, and trust will be hard to reinstall.