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CAR citizens vote in presidential run-off, legislative polls

Sunday, 14 February 2016 7:23 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 14 February 2016 7:22 AM ]

Electoral workers check voting material in the CAR capital city of Bangui on February 13, 2016. ©AFP

People in the Central African Republic (CAR) have started casting ballots in the second round of presidential elections as well as legislative polls in the hope of putting an end to years of violence in the impoverished country.

Anicet-Georges Dologuele and Faustin-Archange Touadera, former prime ministers, are contesting in the presidential run-off on Sunday, while over 1,500 candidates are running for 140 seats in the African country’s National Assembly.

The first round of presidential and parliamentary elections was held in December last year, with a turnout of nearly 80 percent.

In the initial presidential race, Dologuele and Touadera secured about 24 percent and 19 percent of the votes, respectively.

The constitutional court, however, annulled the results of the legislative polls, citing widespread irregularities, but the presidential results of the first round were validated.

The two presidential candidates have campaigned on promises of restoring security and unifying the country, which is currently being led by a transitional government.

“We expect our new president to disarm the fighters so we can go home,” said Emilienne Namsona, who lives in the M’poko displacement camp in the capital city of Bangui.

Supporters of Anicet-Georges Dologuele, the Central African Republic’s presidential candidate, are pushed back by soldiers as they wait for their candidate at the national stadium in the capital city of Bangui on February 12, 2016. ©AP

“This is important because we are suffering here in Central African Republic. We want peace. We’re going to vote for peace,” she added.

At least 2,000 peacekeepers and police forces are on hand in Bangui, while 8,000 others are patrolling elsewhere in the African state.

Lieutenant General Balla Keita, commander of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), expressed optimism that the polls will go ahead properly.

“But we know maybe there still could be issues and that with elections there could be sore losers,”Keita noted.

The CAR plunged into crisis in December 2013, when Christian anti-balaka militia began coordinated attacks against the country’s mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the government of former president, Francois Bozize, in 2013.

France invaded its former colony after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution giving the African Union and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country. However, the foreign mission has failed to contain the violence in the country.

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