Polls have opened in the Central African Republic (CAR) to choose a new president and parliament amid fears of escalating violence as the government tries to hold off a rebel advance on the capital, Bangui.
Armed groups hostile to President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who is seeking a second term, have stepped up attacks since the constitutional court rejected several candidacies, including that of former President Francois Bozize, earlier this month.
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.
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.
Since independence from France in 1960, the country has experienced five coups and numerous rebellions [Evelyn Kahungu/Al Jazeera]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.
“We are going through a crisis but the government wants these elections to take place, regardless of the pressure enforced by the armed groups,” Alexander Cyril Ngozo, an election observer in Bangui, told Al Jazeera ahead of the polls.
“I’m especially worried for my fellow citizens in the countryside. They are people who don’t do politics. What is happening is not in their interest and they are the ones finding themselves in this bad situation once again.”
Yvonne Vola, an 80-year-old mother of nine, is adamant on going to vote, hoping for “lasting peace”.
“I have taken my voting card and I will go vote. It is my country, and I will vote to find lasting peace. I want peace to continue selling my things,” Vola, who sells peanuts and cassava on a roadside in Bangui, told Al Jazeera.
“With nine children, I have to make a lot of effort. Without peace, it does not work. We will be hungry.”
Vola, 80, have three grandchildren too. She wants to vote and is hoping the elections will bring peace to the country. [Adrienne Surprenant/ Al Jazeera]‘Determined to vote’
Denise Brown, head of the UN mission in CAR (MINUSCA), said her agency was “determined” to help people exercise their right to vote in the presidential and legislative elections.
Describing the situation in Bangui as calm, Brown told Al Jazeera on Saturday that all of the instability in CAR was “localised in several communities in the west of the country”.
“Distribution of the voter cards is ongoing and the electorate of this country who are registered to vote are coming in large numbers to collect their cards,” she said on the eve of the polls.
“The population is determined to vote tomorrow. And we are determined, at the United Nations – with the support of the international community – to ensure that the vote goes ahead.”
CAR’s constitutional court also ruled on Saturday that the presidential elections will proceed as planned on Sunday.
“The court said the petitioners did not have strong enough grounds to have the election postponed,” Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi said, reporting from Bangui.
“We have spoken to UN officials who say 70 percent of the country is safe enough for people to come out to vote. We have spoken to the government’s spokesman who said that yes, they expect a low voter turnout but they hope that this turnout won’t be so slow as to discredit the process.”
Gypsiane Dhot, 26, is trained accountant but works as an electoral card distributor waiting to find a job in her field. She, like other people in CAR, want peace to follow the elections. ‘For now, there is no peace in the provinces, people die because of the rebels, and they don’t know if they have security,’ she told Al Jazeera. [Adrienne Surprenant/Al Jazeera]Reporting by Adrienne Surprenant in Bangui
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December 27, 2020 at 01:38PM
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Polls open in Central African Republic under threat of violence - Al Jazeera English
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