Democracy News

CAR’s President Bozize Reelected Despite Alleged Electoral Fraud
February 8, 2011
By: Chinyelu Odunze | Printer Friendly

On February 1, Central African Republic’s Independent Election Commission announced that incumbent President Francois Bozize won the January 23 election with 66 percent of the vote.  Bozize has been in office since 2003.

Central African Republic (CAR) is a nation plagued by fighting and insecurity due to the large presence of armed groups outside the government's control.  According to AllAfrica.com, there had been hopes that a presidential election in the country could improve its stability and security.  Unfortunately, those hopes have been undermined by the opposition’s dismissal of the ballot as a “charade,” reports AllAfrica.com.

AllAfrica.com reports that Nicolas Thiangaye, a spokesperson of the Collectif de Forces du Changement (CFC) opposition coalition said: “The holding of transparent and credible elections was considered by many a prerequisite for the country to achieve stability, but with the massive frauds committed during the elections, and results already contested before the final proclamation, a return to peace will be problematic.” 

However, opposition candidates said the January 23 vote was riddled with irregularities and intimidation and that they will appeal to overturn the results.  According to AllAfrica.com, Ange-Felix Patasse, whom Bozize ousted in the 2003 coup, and who came in second with just over 20 percent of the vote, said he would make a formal complaint to the Constitutional Council. 

Reuters reports that early voter turnout was bustling.  However, many voters said they had been unable to cast their ballot either because of a lack of equipment at some polling stations or because their name was not on the electoral list. These candidates further alleged that there had been irregularities in 52 of the country’s 105 electoral districts, AllAfrica.com reports. 
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative in CAR, Sahle-Work Zewde, has been encouraging candidates with grievances to follow the established legal procedures for filing appeals. She has also been encouraging the Electoral Commission to “address allegations of irregularities in a transparent manner,” UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York.  The UN is also calling on the Constitutional Court to play its role fully and impartially as defined in the Constitution. The Constitutional Court has until next week to validate the results.

AllAfrica.com reports that two days before the election, UN Secretary-General Ban said through his spokesman that the CAR elections “are an important element of the recommendations of the Inclusive Political Dialogue held [in 2008] between the Government, the political opposition and other [armed] movements in order to consolidate peace it the country…and lay the foundation for stability and development.”

The polls, originally scheduled for last April, have been delayed three times due to lack of funds and trouble disarming rebels who have signed peace deals but still roam the northwestern and the northeastern parts of the country.  As a result, Bozize's constitutional five-year-term expired and was extended.

CAR has seen significant ethnic conflict in its north, an overflow of violence from neighboring Chad and Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, and attacks in the east from the brutal rebel group, the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Despite the nation's wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, Bozize's corrupt government remains perpetually cash-strapped.  The country has endured a series of coups and dictators since independence from France in 1960 and is one of the poorest in the world.

Sources:
AllAfrica- Central African Republic: Fraud Claims Dampen Hopes for ‘Peace Building’ Poll

Las Vegas Sun- Strongman wins Central African Republic election

Reuters- Delays as Central African Rep heads to polls