The Central Africans voted this Sunday, December 27 for presidential and legislative elections marked by shootings in some places by rebels trying to dissuade people from going to the polls.
The turnout was massive despite the incidents, the head of the UN mission in the country, Mankeur Ndiaye, said in a statement.
The ballot took place while government tries to control rebel offensive, who took control of towns and roads outside the capital Bangui.
The count has begun and the results should be known before the end of the week.
Renewed tensions
Since the Constitutional Court rejected earlier this month several candidacies, including that of former President François Bozizé, militias hostile to outgoing President Faustin-Archange Touadera intensified their attacks.
This new crisis in the Central African Republic has exhausted many of the 4.7 million inhabitants and fueled fears of unrest unprecedented for several years. Shops have closed their doors in recent days and the population has confined itself.
Rich in diamonds, wood and gold, the former French colony has been rocked by five coups d’état and numerous rebellions since its independence in 1960.
I’ve been keeping my kids close to me for three days
, said Israel Malongou, an entrepreneur from the capital. I want the elections to end, no matter who wins, so we can get on with our lives.
Faustin-Archange Touadera, who is running for a second term, has struggled to retake large parts of the country controlled by armed militias since coming to power in 2016, three years after a rebellion that led to the departure of François Bozizé.
Successive waves of violence since 2013 have claimed thousands of lives and forced more than a million people to flee.
The outgoing president, favorite of the ballot
Seventeen candidates are vying for the presidential election. Touadera is considered a favorite, with the main rival Anicet Georges Dologuélé, former Prime Minister defeated in the second round in 2016 and now supported by Bozizé.
During the campaign, Touadera highlighted the reconstruction of public institutions and rejected opposition calls for a postponement of the poll. There is no institutional crisis. We just have to continue the electoral process
, he said last week.
The outgoing president and the United Nations, which have deployed some 12,800 peacekeepers in the country, accused Bozizé of having orchestrated an attempted coup, which his party denied.
Bozizé’s candidacy was rejected on the grounds that he is the subject of an arrest warrant and UN sanctions, which accuses him of ordering assassinations and acts of torture when he was in power. Bozizé denied these accusations.
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