Nepal, Oct. 25 -- The Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer and a centre of growth and stability in west Africa, goes to the polls on Saturday with President Alassane Ouattara expected to win a fourth term.

Here are five things to know about the former French colony.

- From stability to crisis -

Ivory Coast, bordered by the Atlantic, gained independence from France in 1960.

It saw three decades of stability and prosperity under its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who only introduced a multi-party system in 1990.

But after he died in 1993, unity unravelled.

In 1999, an army mutiny was followed by a coup, the first in the country's history.

Then in 2002 a military uprising effectively cut the country in two, with rebel...