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Challenging presidential and parliamentary elections were held in the Central African Republic on Sunday, where over the past week a coalition of armed groups lobbied the government in an effort to obstruct the vote.
Shots were heard in Bangui from Saturday night to Sunday morning, according to RFI. Africa Service. However, this did not stop voters in the capital from gathering at polling stations early in the morning.
Many voters said they came out to vote so they could say “no” to an armed seizure of power, RFI correspondent Charlotte Cosset and Florence Morice reported, citing some problems with voting, including late opening of polling stations, lack of electoral materials and problems. with voter lists.
Voting difficulties
On Sunday night it was difficult to get a complete and accurate description of the areas where voting could not take place. The CAR National Authority in Charge of Elections (ANE) said some 800 polling stations across the country were unable to open, according to a preliminary assessment, representing about 15% of the country’s 5,400 polling stations.
However, an assessment by the official ballot security committee, which was leaked late Sunday, showed a bleaker picture, saying that voting could not take place in about a third of the subprefectures.
This was the case in Bouar, some 375 kilometers northwest of Bangui, where intense gunfire on Sunday morning created panic among locals. Neither polling station staff nor voters went to polling stations in this commercial city in the west of the Central African Republic, near the border with Cameroon.
Something similar happened in the town of Bossangoa, some 260 kilometers north of the capital, where electoral officials were threatened. The city is considered a former stronghold of former President Francois Bozizé.
In other areas, only a partial vote could be taken. In Bambari, 280 kilometers northeast of Bangui, the intervention of the UN mission in CAR (MINUSCA) was necessary before voting could begin in certain polling stations on Sunday afternoon.
In the north of the Central African Republic, several motorcycles used to transport voting material were attacked by armed groups and local residents heard loud shots, forcing people to stay away from polling stations.
In Kaga Bandoro, 300 kilometers north of the capital, only one of eight polling stations was operating.
“People came to the Kaga Bandoro central polling station, but the other polling stations could not vote,” said city mayor Abel Cherif. “The polling stations were threatened by armed groups and the people did not come, neither the personnel of the polling stations, the voting materials nor the voters,” he added.
In the city of Carnot, in the west of the Central African Republic, election officials and voters managed to proceed with election day under the protection of UN peacekeepers. However, a raid by the rebel group Return, Recovery and Rehabilitation (3R) later that day destroyed all their efforts, when ballot boxes were burned and administrative buildings were attacked.
Elsewhere in the capital, organizational problems impeded voting, especially at the Koudoukou polling station in the PK5 neighborhood.
“The other day I came to pick up my voter card, but they didn’t have it,” said voter Hawa Diarra, who got up at 5am on Sunday to vote. “They told me I could vote with the receipt, but today they told me I can’t vote, what do I do?” he told RFI at 2 pm, when he had not yet cast his vote.
Despite his receipt, his name was not on the electoral roll. And Hawa Diarra was not the only case like this, at least ten voters in the Koudoukou electoral college had the same difficulty. Other problems included missing ballot papers, with only the presidential ballot available and no voting materials for parliamentary voting.
Rebel groups in the Central African Republic asked people not to vote and have seized several cities near the capital, Bangui.
The current president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, is running for a second term and had accused his predecessor Bozizé of attempting to launch a coup with the rebel groups.
Three members of the UN peacekeepers were killed by unknown attackers in the run-up to the vote.
Authorities in the Central African Republic had rejected opposition demands to delay the vote due to insecurity.
