Sawt Falasteen - Ouattara set for fourth term as Ivory Coast holds presidential election

Ouattara, 83, has wielded power in the world's top cocoa producer since 2011, when the country began reasserting itself as a west African economic powerhouse.

Nearly nine million Ivorians are eligible to vote in the polls, which close at 6:00 pm (1800 GMT), choosing between five contenders.

Turnout will be a key factor. Polling stations in the economic capital Abidjan visited by AFP in the afternoon were not crowded but there were many more voters in the second city Bouake, a Ouattara stronghold.

Roads were cut off in some parts of the country's south and west but no disturbances were reported at polling stations.

Many voting centres in pro-opposition areas were nearly empty, AFP reporters said.

Ouattara's leading rivals -- former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and Credit Suisse ex-CEO Tidjane Thiam -- have been barred from standing, Gbagbo for a criminal conviction and Thiam for acquiring French nationality.

With the opposition calling for protests and unrest turning deadly in recent days, the government has slapped a night-time curfew in some areas and deployed 44,000 security forces.

"We are voting today in peace. Our hope is for the day to pass without incident," said Severine Kouakou, a 46-year-old voter in Bouake.

"It is hard to imagine any surprise at the end of this election... since opposition heavyweights aren't present," Gilles Yabi of think tank Wathi told AFP.

- Banned rallies -

Four people, including one policeman, have died in political unrest in recent weeks, while on Monday, an independent electoral commission building was torched.

The government has responded by banning demonstrations, and the judiciary has sentenced several dozen people to three years in prison for disturbing the peace.

The security forces were deployed across the country of 30 million to keep protests in check, especially in former opposition fiefdoms in the south and west.

A night-time curfew was in place on Friday and Saturday in the Yamoussoukro region, where the political capital is located.

Authorities say they want to avoid "chaos" and a repeat of unrest surrounding the 2020 presidential election, in which 85 people died.

"I ask you to closely monitor your neighbourhoods.... We must be ready to protect Ivory Coast," Ouattara said during his final rally on Thursday.

After being re-elected in 2015 with 83 percent of the vote, Ouattara had promised not to run again given the two-term presidential limit.

But when his chosen successor, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died suddenly, Ouattara changed his mind, buoyed by a revision of the constitution which he argued reset his number of terms to zero.

- 'Electoral robbery' -

On Wednesday, barred former president Gbagbo condemned the poll as a "civilian coup d'etat" and "electoral robbery".

"Those who could have won have been eliminated. I do not accept this," he said.

None of the four rival candidates represents an established party, nor do they have the reach of Ouattara's RHDP.

Former trade minister and agri-businessman Jean-Louis Billon, 60, hopes to rally backers from his former stable, the Democratic Party.

Former first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, 76, is looking to garner votes from supporters of her ex-husband.

The left-wing vote hangs in the balance between Simone Gbagbo and Ahoua Don Mello, a civil engineer and independent Pan-African with Russian sympathies.

Then there is centrist Henriette Lagou, a moderate who also stood in the 2015 presidential poll, garnering less than one percent.

Ouattara's government touts several years of strong economic growth and general security, despite jihadist threats on Ivory Coast's borders, as its achievements.

But critics say the undisputed growth has only benefitted a small portion of the population and has been accompanied by a spiralling cost of living.

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST