Incumbent president Francois Bozize is set to defeat challenger Martin Ziguele when about 1,5-million people in the Central African Republic vote in the final round of presidential elections on Sunday, but the outcome of simultaneous legislative polls seem less clear.
There have been no major incidents of violence since the first ballot on March 13 and the elections should mark the end of a transition to democracy started in March 2003 when Bozize overthrew Ange-Felix Patasse in a coup d’etat.
Bozize won nearly 43% in the first round and goes into the second having rallied two first round rivals to his camp.
Ziguele, rejected by many since he was prime minister under Patasse, collected 23,5% at the first round and has been campaigning under the slogan ”Martin Ziguele is not the candidate of ex-President Patasse”.
Ziguele had rallied the support of nine first round candidates, but that support has been wittled down by Bozize luring two candidates away and by the loss of backing from Andre Kolingba, a former president and general who took more than 16% in the first round.
Kolingba has announced himself neutral, though factions within his camp have spoken in favour of both major candidates.
Haunting the election is the memory of Patasse, who is in exile in Togo, and of so-called ”Banyamulenge” militias he invited in from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2001 and 2002 to back him against coup attempts.
Patasse was ousted by Bozize, his one-time armed forces chief of staff, but the scars left by the actions of the ”Banyamulenge” remain vivid. Bozize has cashed in on this in a campaign that has seen him tirelessly travel the length and breadth of the country.
These Banyamulenge were not the ethnic Tutsi inhabitants of the east of the vast DRC, but their name was borrowed by Bangui’s people from rebels just across the border. They wreaked havoc for days before going home once the political unrest was over.
Bozize’s ouster of Patasse was widely welcomed in 2003, since he pledged to put an end to such mayhem, crack down hard on corruption, restore law and order, and eventually turn the country back over to elected politicians. In the months before the polls, however, the opposition accused him of acquiring a taste for power
and using dubious judicial means to try to keep his foes out of the running.
While Bozize is confident of becoming president, the National Convergence — Kwa Na Kwa movement backing him fared poorly at the first round. It was outstripped by Ziguele’s well-oiled and long-installed Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (MLPC) and Kolingba’s Central African Democratic Rally
(RDC).
There are 88 of the 105 seats still to be decided and it seems whoever wins the presidency will have to deal with a range of as yet unaligned factions in Parliament.
”Alliances are still weak, they will be played out once the composition of the assembly is known,” said one diplomat.
Meanwhile, international observers have been praising the peaceful manner of proceedings and hopes are high the polls will end 20 years of instability in the country. – Sapa-AFP