Voting ended Saturday in Côte d'Ivoire for a new president, with incumbent Alassane Ouattara expected to win a fourth term against a divided opposition further hobbled by the barring of two leading candidates.

Ouattara, 83, has wielded power in the world's top cocoa producer since 2011, when the country began reasserting itself as a west African economic powerhouse.

Ouattara is being challenged by former ministers Jean-Louis Billon, Ahoua Don Mello, Henriette Lagou, and former first lady Simone Gbagbo, the wife of his predecessor.

Nearly nine million Ivorians were eligible to vote in the polls, which closed at 6:00 pm (1800 GMT), choosing among the five contenders. Vote tally has started with the final results expected within five days.

Turnout was expected to be a key factor. Polling stations in the economic capital Abidjan visited by AFP journalists in the afternoon were not crowded but there were many more voters in the second city Bouake, a Ouattara stronghold.

"It's the first time that I'm voting and I'm happy to be able to express my choice," said Ben Kone, a young voter in Bouake, where AFP reporters saw long queues to vote.

Roads were cut off in some parts of the country's south and west and vote observers reported the theft of election materials there.

Ouattara's leading rivals, former President Laurent Gbagbo and Credit Suisse ex-CEO Tidjane Thiam, were both barred from standing, Gbagbo for a criminal conviction and Thiam for acquiring French nationality.

The government has imposed a night-time curfew in some areas and deployed 44,000 security forces to forestall any violence.