Africa > Central Africa > Central African Republic > Two thirds of the 30 candidates standing for president of Central African Republic

Central Africa Republic: Two thirds of the 30 candidates standing for president of Central African Republic

2016/01/06

Electorate queue to cast their ballots at a polling centre during the presidential election in the mainly Muslim PK-5 neighborhood in Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic, December 30, 2015.

Two thirds of the 30 candidates standing for president of Central African Republic on Monday demanded the authorities halt the vote count because of what they said were irregularities in the ballot.

A lot of voters hoped the Dec. 30 poll would replace peace to a country where thousands have died and around 1 million have fled during three years of conflict, but with such dissent from the 20 or so candidates, that may be a forlorn hope.

Results have trickled out slowly but with 34 % of the vote counted, former prime minister Faustin Archange Touadera was leading with 139,498 votes, followed by an extra former prime minister, Anicet Georges Dologuele, with 96,728 vote.

The majority prominent candidate at the candidates’ news conference was Bilal Nzanga-Kolingba, son of a former president, who was running fourth with 50,332 behind Jean Serge Bokassa, the son of a late dictator, who had 66,229 votes, said Julius Rufin Ngouade Baba, national election authority spokesman.

Mainly Muslim rebels from a group called the Seleka seized power in the majority Christian country in early 2013, provoking reprisals from Christian anti-balaka militias. Leaders have since fuelled a cycle of religious and inter-communal killings.

A U.N. peacekeeping mission and French forces are active in the impoverished country whose resources of cotton, gold, diamonds and uranium are under-exploited.

Related Articles

Routes Africa forum aims to improve African air connectivity
2016/05/15 An event dedicated to the development of the African aviation industry will take place next month in Tenerife (26-28 June) to encourage the launch of new air services to, from and within the African continent. Routes Africa 2016 will help to improve African connectivity by bringing together airlines, airports and tourism authorities to discuss next air services. Around 250 route development professionals are expected to attend the forum which was founded ten years ago to stimulate increase in the industry.
While Europe is on the verge of breaking up, Africa is reaping the benefits of integrating, growing and developing its trading blocks
2016/05/13 The collapse of virtual borders is one of the majority remarkable things to have happened in our lifetimes. In the world of cyberspace, time and distance have become almost peripheral considerations at the same time as it comes to doing business. Services from software development to accounting can be delivered across the world in the blink of an eye. Next business leaders will struggle to imagine an era at the same time as communication was neither immediate nor virtually free.
Africa’s economic growth is likely to be slower in the intervening years
2016/05/12 Africa’s economic increase is likely to be slower in the intervening years than in the before decade, according to the new rating by Ernst & Young using a barometer to gauge the level of appeal and success.â€œThe baseline projection of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2016 is presently reduced to 3%, while it was estimated at 6.1% in April 2015″, Ernst & Young points out in its rating.
Raw materials have long been linked to Africa in many business people’s minds
2016/05/11 Oil, gold, diamonds, palm oil, cocoa, timber: raw materials have long been linked to Africa in a lot of businesspeople’s minds. And in fact the continent is highly dependent on commodities: they constitute as much as 95% of some nations’ export revenues, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. But propping a country’s entire economy on commodities is risky business, like building a mountainside home on stilts. You can’t be sure about the weather, or in this case the commodities market. The current free-fall of oil prices to less than $40 a barrel is a glaring example. “The commodities cycle has tanked out,” says Austin Okere, founder of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), a Nigerian emerging multinational financial services company. “And this time it looks additional structural than cyclical, so it’s not a matter of waiting it out. Something has to give.”
Central African Republic s newly elected president vows to strengthen cooperation with China
2016/03/23 Central African Republic's (CAR) newly elected President Faustin Archange Touadera promised to intensify cooperation with China, saying China is an significant partner of the country. Touadera said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Sunday that CAR will like to work together with China to promote the friendly relationship and strengthen cooperation between the two nations. Touadera said his country is in urgent need to be normalized next three years of civil war, adding that the new government will focus on a series of issues inclunding security, peace, reconciliation and disarmament.