Vote for your candidate in complete anonymity,” the advert says, “Call right now!”. Presidential elections will not take place as scheduled on 30 October but Ivorians can pick up the telephone and declare their choice instead. The privately operated telephone poll is all about easing the atmosphere of mistrust that has gripped the political process in Cote d’Ivoire, according to the scheme’s mastermind, Hamed N’Cho. “I wanted to show that you can organise elections in a relaxed and playful atmosphere and that you can vote without getting into an argument or a fight,” he told IRIN. The warring parties in Cote d’Ivoire have plodded through three years of missed deadlines – steps that were to have led to presidential elections at the end of this month. The polls have been shelved for what could be a full year, over what the UN described as the “intransigence” of rebel and government factions.