Ivory Coast Election
Election officials start counting ballots in the first round of presidential elections in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sunday Oct. 31, 2010. The West Africa...
Election officials start counting ballots in the first round of presidential elections in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sunday Oct. 31, 2010. The West African nation of Ivory Coast held a long-awaited presidential election Sunday, the first since civil war erupted in 2002 and split the world's leading cocoa producer in half. Millions of people here are hoping the repeatedly delayed poll will reunite the divided country and restore stability after more than a decade of chaos and tension. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Ivory Coast Election
An electoral commission agent sits beside stacks of counted presidential ballots following the close of polls, at a voting bureau in the former rebel...
An electoral commission agent sits beside stacks of counted presidential ballots following the close of polls, at a voting bureau in the former rebel stronghold of Bouake, northern Ivory Coast, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010. The West African nation of Ivory Coast held a long-awaited presidential election Sunday, the first since civil war erupted in 2002 and split the world's leading cocoa producer in half. Millions of people here are hoping the repeatedly delayed poll will reunite the divided country and restore stability after more than a decade of chaos and tension. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Ivory Coast Election
Poll volunteers and party representatives tally votes at a polling station in a school, in the former rebel stronghold of Bouake, in northern Ivory C...
Poll volunteers and party representatives tally votes at a polling station in a school, in the former rebel stronghold of Bouake, in northern Ivory Coast, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010. The West African nation of Ivory Coast held a long-awaited presidential election Sunday, the first since civil war erupted in 2002 and split the world's leading cocoa producer in half. Millions of people here are hoping the repeatedly delayed poll will reunite the divided country and restore stability after more than a decade of chaos and tension. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Ivory Coast Election
Poll workers and political party representatives tally votes by the light of a battery-powered lamp, after the close of polls at a voting station on ...
Poll workers and political party representatives tally votes by the light of a battery-powered lamp, after the close of polls at a voting station on the outskirts of the former rebel stronghold of Bouake, northern Ivory Coast, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010. The West African nation of Ivory Coast held a long-awaited presidential election Sunday, the first since civil war erupted in 2002 and split the world's leading cocoa producer in half.Millions of people here are hoping the repeatedly delayed poll will reunite the divided country and restore stability after more than a decade of chaos and tension. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Ivory Coast elections
Election officials start counting ballots in the first round of presidential elections in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sunday Oct. 31, 2010. The West Africa...
Election officials start counting ballots in the first round of presidential elections in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sunday Oct. 31, 2010. The West African nation of Ivory Coast held a long-awaited presidential election Sunday, the first since civil war erupted in 2002 and split the world's leading cocoa producer in half. Millions of people here are hoping the repeatedly delayed poll will reunite the divided country and restore stability after more than a decade of chaos and tension. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Ivory Coast Election
A poll worker marks votes for former president Henri Konan Bedie on a school blackboard during vote counting at a polling station in the former rebel...
A poll worker marks votes for former president Henri Konan Bedie on a school blackboard during vote counting at a polling station in the former rebel stronghold of Bouake, in northern Ivory Coast, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010. The West African nation of Ivory Coast held a long-awaited presidential election Sunday, the first since civil war erupted in 2002 and split the world's leading cocoa producer in half.Millions of people here are hoping the repeatedly delayed poll will reunite the divided country and restore stability after more than a decade of chaos and tension. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Partial results from an election aimed at reuniting war-divided Ivory Coast show President Laurent Gbagbo with a slight lead Wednesday over the main opposition leader.
In a late night state television broadcast that stretched into the early hours of Wednesday, electoral commission spokesman Bamba Yacouba announced results from about half the country's 5.7 million registered voters.
Figures indicated Gbagbo was ahead with nearly 37 percent the vote. Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara had 34 percent, according to an Associated Press tabulation. Ex-president Henri Konan Bedie was in third place with about 27 percent.
If no candidate wins a simple majority, the top two finishers will face off in a second round Nov. 28. More results are expected later Wednesday.
