If results confirmed, the 83-year-old, who has led the country since 2011, will be sworn in for a fourth term.
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is in the lead to win re-election, according to partial election results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission.
The results from several departments and polling stations were announced on national television on Sunday.
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If confirmed, Ouattara, an 83-year-old who has led the country since 2011, would secure a fourth term in office.
“The results of 20 departments or divisions are being read out,” and 11 departments remain, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said, reporting from the economic capital, Abidjan, where officials read out the results from Saturday’s election, which included diaspora votes from six countries.
“This is the most critical stage of this election, where results from various polling booths and centres are being collated and announced,” Idris said.
“From the initial results, it’s clear the incumbent is leading by a wide margin in many of the areas so far.”
Sunday’s announcements will determine whether there will be a run-off or a first-round win for whoever is going to take this election, our correspondent added.
“Ivorians are watching closely what happens here. And the result of this election will determine whether or not the streets will remain calm,” he said.
Nearly nine million Ivorians were eligible to vote in an election marked by a divided opposition further hobbled by the barring of two leading candidates.
Ouattara’s leading rivals – former President Laurent Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam – were barred from standing, Gbagbo for a criminal conviction and Thiam for acquiring French citizenship.
This led to pre-election protests and calls from some quarters for a boycott of the polls.
While an official voter turnout is not yet known, the president of the election commission, Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert, put the figure at about 50 percent.
Polling stations in Abidjan and historically pro-opposition areas in the south and west were nearly empty, the AFP news agency reported. Meanwhile, it said voters turned out in large numbers in the north, where Ouattara had most of his support.
With key contenders out of the race, Ouattara was the overwhelming favourite.
Saturday’s vote was reminiscent of the last election in 2020, in which he obtained 94 percent of the ballots with a turnout slightly above 50 percent in an election then boycotted by the main opposition.
None of the four candidates who faced Ouattara represented a major party or have the reach of the ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace.
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