Presidential Election Heads to Runoff in Ivory Coast

The people of Ivory Coast will get to chose between incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and ex-prime minister Alassane Ouattara in a presidential election runoff November 28. The nation's Constitutional Council announced the runoff Saturday after it validated the result of election's first round which took place October 31. President Gbagbo won 38.3 percent of the vote and Ouattara took 32.08 percent, according to the results announced by the Independent Election Commission. Since the announcement of the results, Henri Konan Bedie, who came in third with 25 percent of the vote, and other minor opposition leaders have called on their supporters to vote for Ouattara. This is Ivory Coast's first presidential election since a 2002 civil war. President Gbagbo's term officially ended in 2005, but new elections were repeatedly postponed because of failure to disarm rebels and disputes over voter registration.