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Opposition figures in the Central African Republic on Tuesday criticized the outcome of the presidential elections in which President Faustin Archange Touadera returned to power under controversial conditions.
The country’s electoral authority, the ANE, declared Touadera the winner of the December 27 vote on Monday night with 53.92 percent of the votes, a figure that, if confirmed by the highest court of the CAR, means that a second round will not be needed.
The agency put the first round turnout at 76.31 percent, although the figure represents just 910,000 eligible voters in a registered electorate of 1.8 million.
Two-thirds of the country is controlled by armed groups, and many voters in these areas were unable to cast their votes.
The ANE “has taken the step of disdainfully ignoring 947,452 Central Africans who were prevented from voting by violence by armed groups,” said runner-up Anicet Georges Dologuele, a former prime minister credited with 21.01 percent.
Celebrations: Two Touadera supporters doused themselves with beer while dancing in front of their party headquarters. By FLORENT VERGNES (AFP) As a result, “51 percent of the electorate” could not vote, he said in a statement that he announced that he would file a complaint with the Constitutional Court.
The third-place candidate, Martín Ziguele, said: “I do not support these results, it is a masquerade, a shame for our country.”
According to official figures, voting did not take place at all in 29 of the 71 sub-prefectural districts and was reduced in another six.
In almost half of the polling stations, “the vote was not carried out or the ballots were destroyed,” ANE rapporteur Theophile Momokoama told AFP.
The Constitutional Court has until January 19 to validate the result. The opposition has already said it will file a lawsuit.
Proof
The elections are seen as a key test of stability in one of the poorest and most violence-prone countries in the world.
The former landlocked French colony remains in the aftermath of a civil war in 2013 that followed the overthrow of Touadera’s predecessor, Francois Bozize.
Thousands of people have died and almost a quarter of the population has been displaced.
Bozize has cast a long shadow over the elections. He returned to the Central African Republic in December 2019 after years in exile, despite being the target of UN sanctions and an international arrest warrant. By FLORENT VERGNES (AFP / Archive) On Monday, the Central African Republic prosecutor said an investigation had been launched into Bozize, whom the government accused of planning a coup in the run-up to election day.
Government spokesman Ange-Maxime Kazagui said Tuesday that the elections had been “credible”.
“The results have been announced and I can only express my joy, like everyone who supports … the president,” Touadera said. “It is a vote to reject violence.”
Four international organizations that provided millions in funds to organize the elections praised “the determination of Central Africans to exercise their right to vote despite numerous obstacles.”
The joint statement “noting interim results” was issued by the African Union, the European Union, the United Nations, and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), an 11-nation bloc that includes the Central African Republic.
Thierry Vircoulon, CAR specialist in the think tank of the French Institute of International Relations, said that “this election is a big step back compared to 2016”, the first postwar elections that Touadera won.
The vote is “anything but credible,” he said in an interview with AFP.
The “actual turnout” was 30 percent, he said, pointing to alleged wrongdoing that had taken place before the result was revealed.
A coalition of opposition political groups had called on December 19 for the cancellation of the elections and reiterated that call three days after the vote.
Elections for the CAR legislature were also held on December 27, the results of which have not yet been announced.
Frustrated ‘hit’
Bozize, a 74-year-old former general, is accused by the government of fomenting an attempted coup with three armed groups.
On the weekend before the elections, the three militias tried to advance towards the capital Bangui but were detained, according to the UN peacekeeping force, MINUSCA.
Location map of Bangassou, which is 750 km east of Bangui. By (AFP) They opposed the armed forces of the Central African Republic and MINUSCA, but also hundreds of heavily armed foreign reinforcements: Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan special forces, brought in by Moscow and Kigali under bilateral pacts.
Where the militias have made a profit is in distant towns surrounded by territory they control.
One of them is Bangassou, a city of about 30,000 people about 750 kilometers (450 miles) from Bangui, which has been partially occupied since Sunday.
