BANGUI, Dec 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Central African Republic residents turned out in significant numbers for presidential and legislative elections on Sunday, the head of the United Nations mission said, despite rebels opening fire in some areas to try to scare away voters.
Armed groups hostile to President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who is seeking a second term, have carried out attacks and threatened to march to the capital Bangui and disrupt the election after the constitutional court this month rejected several candidates, including former President Francois Bozize.
Vote counting began on Sunday and full provisional results are expected by the end of the week.
Touadera is considered the favourite in the field of 17 candidates.
His main challenger is Anicet Georges Dologuele, a former prime minister who finished runner-up in 2016 and is supported by Bozize.
The election will go to a second round if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote.
After a slow start and sporadic gunfire in some towns, the head of the UN mission in the country said in a statement that there was a huge turnout. He did not provide details.
“This morning, they (rebels) started firing, hoping to scare people away from voting. Yes, in certain areas, it is difficult but in many other areas, you can see people going out massively to vote,” Mankeur Ndiaye said.
The crisis has left many in the diamond and gold-rich nation of 4.7 million exhausted, stirring fears of a return to the worst violence of CAR’s recent past.
Since independence from France in 1960, the country has experienced five coups and numerous rebellions.
Several opposition candidates as well as a recently formed coalition of armed groups – the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) – have called for the elections to be delayed, but the CAR government and the United Nations have rejected the call.
The CPC – comprising several armed groups accused of war crimes by Human Rights Watch (HRW) – launched an offensive last week and threatened to march on Bangui.
The government called the move a “coup” led by Bozize, a claim the former president denied.
The rebel alliance briefly seized Bambari, the CAR’s fourth-largest city, last week but their progress was halted when Russia and Rwanda sent troops to shore up Touadera’s government, while the UN mission in South Sudan sent 300 peacekeepers to the country to “secure” Sunday’s elections.
More than 55,000 people have fled their homes for fear of violence in recent weeks, according to the UN, while HRW said at least five civilians had been killed.
On Saturday, the UN – which has more than 12,800 peacekeepers in the country – said “unidentified armed combatants” killed three peacekeepers from Burundi in attacks in the central Kemo prefecture and the southern Mbomou prefecture. — NNN-AGENCIESi
