Curfew to Follow Ivory Coast Election

Ivory Coast voters are having a day of reflection Saturday after a last day of political rallies for Sunday’s runoff presidential election.

President Laurent Gbagbo announced there will be an overnight curfew after the Sunday vote to prevent violence and make sure there is no interference with transmission of ballots to electoral officials. But supporters of his challenger, Alassane Ouattara, say the curfew will give the president a chance to rig the vote.

Violence has erupted in recent days, prompting both candidates to appeal for calm before they held their final political rallies Friday. The clashes left at least one person dead and several injured.

Ivory Coast is voting for a new president for the first time since the 2002 civil war.

The first round of the election in October passed without incident. Mr. Gbagbo won with 38 percent of the vote. Mr. Ouattara was second with 32 percent. The runoff hinges on which candidate will attract the voters who backed the third-place candidate, former president Henri Konan Bedie.

President Gbagbo’s term officially ended in 2005. But elections were postponed several times since then because of failure to disarm rebels and disputes over who was eligible to vote.

The rebels tried to oust the government of President Gbagbo in September 2002, while he was out of the country. The two sides agreed in January of 2003 to create a unity government, but the country remained effectively divided. A fragile peace accord was signed in 2007.

Some information in this story was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.