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Ivory Coast votes with 83-year-old Ouattara’s legacy in focus
4:21 CAT | 25 Oct 2025
Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara, who is seeking a fourth term, votes during the presidential election at a polling station at the Lycee Saint-Marie de Cocody in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, October 25, 2025. [Photo: Reuters/Luc Gnago]
- More than eight million people are registered to vote on Saturday. Provisional results are expected within five days.
Ivory Coast is voting in a presidential election on Saturday with incumbent and strong favourite Alassane Ouattara, 83, claiming credit for nearly 15 years of economic growth and relative stability while hinting it will be his final campaign.
A former international banker and Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Ouattara took power in 2011 after a four-month civil war that killed around 3 000 people.
The war was triggered by the refusal of his predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, to acknowledge defeat in the 2010 election.
More than eight million people are registered to vote on Saturday. Polling stations close at 18:00 CAT. Provisional results are expected within five days. A runoff will be held if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote.
Gbagbo and Tidjane Thiam, former CEO of Credit Suisse, were deemed ineligible to run this year, and the remaining opposition candidates lack the backing of a major political party, making Ouattara the clear favourite.
Announcing his candidacy in July, Ouattara said a fourth term would be one of “generational transmission.” This week he acknowledged that “it’s not easy to work at the same pace” now that he is in his 80s.
Ivory Coast’s median age is 18.
As polling stations opened at 0800 GMT in the Adjame district of the commercial capital Abidjan, even Ouattara’s supporters said he should be nearing the end of his career.
“He has really changed the image of Ivory Coast, but this should be his last mandate. We need to pass the torch to the new generation,” said Souamane Cisse, a 44-year-old driver.
Schoolteacher Fatou Fofana, 48, also said it was time for younger leadership but only if the transition is peaceful. There is currently no clear choice for a successor in the ruling party.
“It needs to come at the right time,” Fofana said. “We need security.”
Source: Reuters
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