Ivorians line up to cast their votes at a polling station in the Abobo suburb
of Abidjan April 21, 2013.
Voters in Ivory Coast began
casting their ballots in local elections Sunday, amid high tensions following a
decision by the party of former president Laurent Gbagbo to boycott the poll.
They are the first local elections in more than a decade in
French-speaking West Africa's largest economy and the first time the government
has organized a vote since a disputed presidential contest in 2010 plunged the
country into violence.
Almost 700 candidates are running for municipal seats, with
an additional 84 on the ballot for regional positions.
With Gbagbo's party, the Popular Ivorian Front (FPI), out of
the race, the election is a contest between the two parties in power -
President Alassane Ouattara's Rally of Republicans and the Democratic Party of
Ivory Coast, which held power until 1993.
The United Nations estimates that at least 3,000 people died
in five months of fighting after Gbagbo refused to concede defeat to the winner
and current president, Ouattara.
The final days of the campaign saw clashes in several areas
including Abidjan and towns in the west, an unstable, violence-prone region.
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