Voting began in Ivory Coast yesterday in an election likely to give President Alassane Ouattara a second term, a crucial event after a decade-long political crisis that ended with a civil war in 2011.
Ouattara, whose leadership has helped the West African nation to re-emerge as a rising economic star on the continent, faces a weak and divided opposition.
A partial boycott and voter apathy could result in a low turnout.
A peaceful election would reassure foreign investors keen to put money into the world's top cocoa grower. They are being drawn by growth of around 9% over the past three years, even as the commodities crash causes other African economies to crumble.
More than 6million Ivorians are registered to vote at about 20000 polling stations.
"It's a big day for Ivory Coast," Ouattara said. "We must ensure that we emerge from this election with peace and serenity, and unite even more to take on the further challenges awaiting the nation."
Speaking to journalists after voting in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, he said the turnout could surpass the roughly 80% of registered voters who cast ballots in 2010.
The process was delayed in many areas by the late arrival of ballots and ballot boxes.
An hour after the official starting time, only 57% of polling stations were open, according to the Poeci, a civil society observer platform. That later rose to 85%.
Few expect serious violence to mar the election, in which seven candidates are standing for the presidency. But tens of thousands of soldiers, police and gendarmes have been deployed.
Witnesses reported smooth and peaceful voting in Abidjan, and in the towns of Man, Gagnoa and Korhogo.
Voter turnout will be critical to legitimising Ouattara's mandate if he wins, as expected. Leaders of a breakaway faction of the Ivorian Popular Front, the party of former president Laurent Gbagbo, called for a boycott of the election.
Gbagbo's refusal to recognise Ouattara's 2010 poll victory sparked the civil war. Gbagbo himself is now in The Hague awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court charged with crimes against humanity.
