By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Voting in the Sunday’s presidential election in Central African Republic (CAR) has come to an end with President Faustin-Archange Touadera widely expected to secure a third term in office.
Voting ended at 1700 GMT, with provisional results expected on January 5.
The election which also featured parliamentary, municipal and regional polls witnessed partial boycott by the opposition, who argued that the poll lacked political dialogue and credibility.
Touadera went into the election which had 2.3 million as the leading candidate in a seven-man race, following a new constitution adopted in 2023 which cleared the way for him to seek another term.
“People were able to vote in calm, without incident”, Nazaire Patchbale, who was in charge of the polling station in the city hall in the capital Bangui said.
In another polling station, a 37-year-old who gave only his first name, Beranger, told AFP he did not vote, explaining that he saw some people not on the electoral rolls being allowed to cast ballots, and others on the rolls but without electoral cards barred from doing so.
Touadera, 68, turned up to vote escorted by members of the presidential guard and by contractors with Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group, which has established itself as one of the government’s main security partners.
Streets in Bangui were quiet through the day, with armoured vehicles of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSCA deployed at road junctions and heavy security outside voting stations.
Since Touadera was first elected in 2016, in the middle of a civil war, the Central African Republic has seen unrest ease, although feuds persist between armed groups and the government in some regions.
The main challenger to Touadera for the presidency, Anicet-Georges Dologuele, voted in Bangui earlier Sunday. He came in second place in the last two elections.
Afterwards, he said: “I will respect the choice of the ballot box, since I’m going to win.”
More than 1,700 national and international observers were accredited for Sunday’s polls, the electoral body said.
The ballot, along with a Guinea presidential vote on Sunday, capped a packed year of elections across Africa.
