There is a sense of foreboding to Ivory Coast’s upcoming presidential election, due to be held on Oct. 31. The last time Ivorians went to the polls against the backdrop of fractious political debate and elevated intercommunal tensions, in 2010, the result was widespread violence that left at least 3,000 people dead.
That year the election pitted then-President Laurent Gbagbo against opposition leader Henri Konan Bédié and former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, the country’s current president. The vote sparked significant unrest when the Electoral Commission declared Ouattara the winner, but Gbagbo, supported by the Constitutional Council, refused to stand down. Ouattara, with the assistance of Forces Nouvelles rebels, France, and the United Nations, seized the presidency, and Gbagbo was later sent to the International Criminal Court, where he was tried for crimes against humanity, only to be acquitted in January 2019.
