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Opposition figures in the Central African Republic called on Tuesday for the cancellation of last month’s elections due to “numerous irregularities”.
The electoral authority (ANE) declared the late winner on Monday, Faustin Archange Touadera, with nearly 54% of the vote, which means that a second round will not be necessary if the result is confirmed by the higher court of the RCA.
But defeated opposition candidates said in a joint statement that the December 27 presidential and parliamentary elections were “littered with many irregularities” and called for “an outright annulment”.
They said only 695,000 registered voters out of 1.8 million were able to vote, which equates to a turnout of 37% instead of the 76.31% reported by the ANE.
Celebrations: Two Touadera supporters doused themselves with beer as they danced outside his party headquarters. By FLORENT VERGNES (AFP) Two-thirds of the country is controlled by armed groups and many voters in these areas were unable to vote.
In nearly half of the polling stations, “the vote did not take place or the ballots were destroyed,” ANE rapporteur Théophile Momokoama told AFP.
The Constitutional Court has until January 19 to validate the result.
Anicet Georges Dologuele, a former Prime Minister who came second with 21% of the vote, promised to file a complaint in court.
He accused the ANE of having “disdainfully ignored 947,452 Central Africans who were prevented from voting by the violence of armed groups”.
Martin Ziguele, third, added: “I do not give any substance to these results, it is a masquerade, a shame for our country”.
EU approval
The elections are seen as a key test of stability in one of the poorest and most violence-prone countries in the world.
Bozize has cast a long shadow over the elections. He returned to CAR in December 2019 after years of exile, despite being targeted by UN sanctions and an international arrest warrant. By FLORENT VERGNES (AFP / File) The former enclaved French colony is still grappling with the aftershocks of a civil war in 2013 that followed the ousting of Touadera’s predecessor, François Bozize.
Thousands of people have died and nearly a quarter of the population has been displaced.
On Monday, prosecutors said an investigation was opened into Bozize, whom the government accused of plotting a coup in the run-up to election day.
Government spokesman Ange-Maxime Kazagui said on Tuesday the elections had been credible and the result was a vote for peace.
“The results have been announced and I can only express my joy,” he said.
International groups, including the European Union and the African Union, provided funds to help organize the election and, in a joint statement, praised “the determination of the Central Africans to exercise their right to vote despite numerous obstacles “.
Russia, a strong ally of Touadera, said it hoped the elections “would help normalize the country.”
But Thierry Vircoulon, of the think tank at the French Institute for International Relations, said the election was “a giant step backwards” from 2016, the previous election which was also won by Touadera.
He told AFP the vote was “anything but credible” and the actual turnout was 30 percent.
A coalition of political opposition groups called on December 19 for the cancellation of the elections and repeated this call three days after the vote.
Upset ‘coup’
Bozize is accused by the government of having instigated an attempted coup d’état with three armed groups trying to advance on the capital Bangui.
Location map of Bangassou, 750 km east of Bangui. By (AFP) They were arrested by a combination of CAR armed forces and UN peacekeepers, as well as heavily armed Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan special forces sent by air as part of bilateral pacts.
Although they failed to capture Bangui, the militias gained ground in remote towns surrounded by territory they already dominated.
For example, Bangassou, a town of about 30,000 residents about 750 kilometers (450 miles) from Bangui, has been partially occupied since Sunday.
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