Tensions mount as Alassane Ouattara seeks fourth term in Ivory Coast vote

Protests have been banned and opposition figures sidelined as 83-year-old president ignores calls to step down

This is worth several more terms," the Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, joked while opening a bridge named after him in the country's commercial capital, Abidjan, in 2023.

The appearance in recent years of several new bridges in west Africa's second most populous city has been hailed by the president's supporters as symbolic of an era of modernity and stable leadership under his watch.