The counting of votes in more than 20,000 polling stations immediately began closed Sunday evening and continued into the night. While the electoral commission has three days to announce the results, preliminary results are expected later Monday.
There are 14 candidates, but only three real contenders: President Laurent Gbagbo, former President Henri Konan Bedie and former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara. If no one wins more than half the votes, the two finalists will compete in a runoff.
It is therefore important for every man to do good with his base, build the foundations for possible coalitions in the second round losing candidates. Ouattara and Bedie have already committed to supporting the other hand, if man is facing President Gbagbo in a runoff.
President calls on all candidates to keep their supporters calm and wait for official results.
The president says it is enforcing the law. He says candidates should not make a spectacle of themselves for each proclaiming their own results. He said that Ivory Coast has a law that is clear and it is the Independent Electoral Commission, which has the power to announce the preliminary results. It is then up to the Constitutional Council to give the final results. The president says that if everyone respects the law, there will be problems in Ivory Coast.
Is this a key vote, not only for Cote d'Ivoire, but for West Africa, too. With ethnic violence has delayed the second round of presidential elections in Guinea and Sierra Leone and Liberia are still struggling to recover their own civil wars, a positive vote here allows stability and economic development.
Former Ghanaian President John Kufuor, is an election observer with the Carter Center.
"Ivory Coast has always been the economic heart or center, I said, not only French-speaking West Africa, but even the English-speaking, and everyone is looking for Côte d'Ivoire for a peaceful and fair election so they can resume playing its own role in the development of the whole neighborhood, "he said.
The Carter Center and the observer mission of the European Union will announce its preliminary report on the fairness of the vote Tuesday.