Cote d'Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast, was holding a legislative election on Saturday, two months after President Alassane Ouattara won reelection with his RHDP party.

The 83-year-old Ouattara won his bid to extend his 14-year-rule in an October vote marred by accusations of silencing opposition politicians through arbitrary arrests and election bans.

Protests calling for a more free presidential election were met with a brutal police crackdown that left eleven people dead and dozens of opposition supporters jailed.

Opposition boycotts vote

Despite polls opening an hour late in the capital Abidjan due to torrential rains, voters queued to pass their ballots in what observers considered a two-horse race between the ruling RHDP and the main remaining opposition party PDCI-RDA.

The RHDP is expected to maintain its majority in the 255-seat legislature.

Opposition party PPA-CI was boycotting the vote after former President Laurent Gbagbo, a member of the party, was barred from running in October.

"I don't feel represented in the national assembly,"  21-year-old student Assi Gilles Darus Aka told French news agency AFP, reflecting a sentiment shared by many opposition supporters who have called for more fair elections.

Edited by: Louis Oelofse