Ivory Coast votes for parliament, president seeks majority

ABIDJAN, Cote d’Ivoire – Ivory Coast residents are voting Sunday in a parliamentary election that the president hopes will maintain his strong majority despite challenges from the opposition.

Voting for the more than 1,300 candidates for 255 seats was slow Sunday, while security was high.

President Alassane Ouattara’s ruling coalition promises growth, hoping to seal its majority. The opposition Ivorian Popular Front, however, is participating in the vote in hopes of a more diversified parliament despite boycotting politics since 2011 after fighting saw its founder, ex-President Laurent Gbagbo, and others jailed. The party is putting up more than 180 candidates.

Violence after the 2010 election killed more than 3,000 people when Gbagbo refused to accept defeat to Ouattara.

Gbagbo’s fringe opposition is boycotting elections. Gbagbo remains on trial at The Hague.

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