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Central African Republic Elections, 2005Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in the Central African Republic on March 13, 2005, marking the end of the transitional process that began with the seizure of power by Franois Boziz in March 2003. Boziz ran in the election in an attempt to win a five-year term after two years as transitional leader, and 10 other candidates also ran. Former president Ange-Flix Patass was excluded from running. In the concurrent parliamentary elections, the 105 seats in the new parliament were contested. The elections, the country's first since a victory by Patass in the September 1999 presidential election, followed a new constitution that took effect in late December 2004, having been approved by the people in a referendum. A run-off election between Boziz, who won the most votes in the first round according to official results, and Patass's last prime minister, Martin Zigul, will be held. The opposition has called for the vote to be declared null due to alleged fraud and irregularities. Date of the election The elections were initially scheduled for January 30, 2005, with a run-off date of February 27,1 but were subsequently delayed to February 13 by a decree of president Boziz in mid-December 2004. http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=44650 In late January 2005, they were delayed further by one month to March 13.2 Candidates After taking power with the seizure of the capital, Bangui, on March 15, 2003, Boziz said that his rule would mark a transitional period prior to future elections, and he indicated that he would not run for president in those elections. However, some of his supporters called on him to run. Following a referendum on a new constitution on December 5, 2004, Boziz announced his candidacy in the presidential election as an independent candidate on December 11, 2004, while speaking to supporters. He cited what he considered the will of the people in his decision: - After thinking thoroughly, and being deeply convinced and keeping in mind the nation's interest, I grasped the deep sense of my people's calls. As a citizen, I'll take my responsibility.
- I'll contest the election to achieve the task of rebuilding the country, which is dear to me and according to your wish.3
10 other candidates also contested the presidential election, including one former president and three former prime ministers (one of whom is the current vice-president). Andr Kolingba, who ruled the Central African Republic from 1981 until his defeat by Ange-Flix Patass in the 1993 election, is one of these candidates. He came in second in the September 1999 election, although Patass defeated him by a wide margin. The current vice-president, Abel Goumba, is also running; he served as prime minister in the late 1950s and again from March to December 2003, following Boziz's seizure of power. Additionally, Martin Zigul, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2003 (Patass's last prime minister prior to his ouster), contested the election, along with Jean-Paul Ngoupand (of the Party for National Unity and Democracy), who was prime minister from 1996 to 1997. The other candidates were former defense minister Jean-Jacques Dmafouth, the lawyer Henri Pouzre, Charles Massi (of the Forum pour la Democratie et la Modernit), Olivier Gabirault, and Pasteur Josu Binoua. Events and controversy In May 2004, Boziz approved 30 members of a independent, mixed electoral commission (Cmi) who had been chosen by three groups: political parties, professional groups, and the national administration. Each of these three groups chose 10 of the members, although the country's 44 parties took some time to reach a compromise on who should be their 10 members.4 Earlier in the year, Alpha Oumar Konar, the chairman of the commission of the African Union and former president of Mali, reportedly urged Boziz not to stand for election. Boziz gave an interview to Radio France Internationale on May 17 in which he refused to say whether or not he would run, but he confirmed that Konar had spoken to him about it, while criticizing Konar for what he called interference in the country's affairs, and wondering whether he had consulted the opinions of the Central African people before getting involved. He stressed that the matter would depend on the will of the people. Some of his supporters campaigned prominently for him to stand; thousands marched in Bangui on June 19 to vehemently support his candidacy. In November 2004, former president Ange-Flix Patass, who presently lives in exile in Togo following his 2003 ouster by Boziz, was nominated as the presidential candidate of his party, the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (Mouvement pour la Libration du Peuple Centrafricain, MLPC).5 In December, Abel Goumba and Henri Pouzre submitted applications to run.6 On December 30, the transitional constitutional court decided that all but five candidates—Boziz, Andr Kolingba, Abel Goumba, Henri Pouzre, and former minister Auguste Boukanga—would be excluded from running for various reasons. Patass was among the seven who were barred, which the court said was due to problems with his birth certificate, as well as with his land title.7 In rejecting the candidacy of Jean-Jacques Dmafouth, it said that there was a conflict between the date of birth given on his birth certificate (October 3, 1950) and that given in his declaration of candidacy and criminal record (October 3, 1959). http://www.tchadforum.com/?page=article_item&aid=607 The other candidates who were rejected were Martin Zigul, Jean-Paul Ngoupand, Charles Massi, Olivier Gabirault, and Pasteur Josu Binoua.7 Prior to the court's decision, three of the 15 initial candidates had already withdrawn from the race, leaving only 12 candidacies to judge. Fidle Gouandjika, who took less than 1% of the vote in the 1999 presidential election, http://africanelections.tripod.com/cf.html withdrew in favor of Boziz about a week before the decision. http://www.africatime.com/Centrafrique/nouvelle.asp?no_nouvelle=164388&no_categorie=PRESSE Joseph Bendounga, a former mayor of Bangui and an opponent of Boziz's transitional government, also withdrew;7 he had been named as a candidate by his party, the Democratic Movement for Renewal and Development in Central Africa, in May 2004.8 Enoch Drant-Lakou, who was prime minister for several months in 1993 and took a little more than 1% in the 1999 election, http://africanelections.tripod.com/cf.html withdrew as well.7 The court's decision caused controversy and was followed by demands for the annulment of the decision and the dissolution of the court. Although the chairman of the court, Marcel Malonga, reaffirmed the decision on state radio on January 3, 2005, Boziz made a conciliatory gesture on January 4 by announcing that three of the disqualified candidates would be permitted to run: Jean-Paul Ngoupand, Martin Zigul, and Charles Massi. In this decision, he invoked presidential powers available to him according to the new constitution, citing Article 22.9 At the same time, however, he maintained the exclusion of the remaining four candidates, and in a reference to Patass, who is accused of stealing 70 billion CFA francs from the national treasury, he said that he thought candidates who were "the subject of judicial proceedings, for violent and economic crimes, should be permanently rejected".10 This did not resolve the dispute, however, and the three he approved refused to accept his validation of their candidacies, accusing Boziz of trying to divide the opposition. All seven of the initially barred candidates continued to demand the dissolution of the court and also put forward a request for the invalidation of Boziz's own candidacy.10 For his part, Boziz sharply criticized the seven in a speech in the city of Mobaye on January 15, which was carried on state radio, accusing them of "nothing more or less than sorcery" and "madness, bad faith, coupled with a dose of misinformation". He further said that, in contrast to them, his policy "does not aim at destroying the country, it is not based on violence, lies, betrayal, manipulation or strikes".11 Amidst this tension and controversy, the seven excluded candidates, along with the originally accepted candidates Kolingba and Goumba, called for the mediation of Gabonese president Omar Bongo.12 On January 22, the matter was effectively resolved through the signing by Boziz and his rivals of an agreement in Libreville, which allowed all the candidates except Patass to participate and brought the total number of candidates to 11.2 According to the agreement, Patass would remain barred because he was the subject of judicial proceedings.12 The date of the election was also delayed to March 13, and it was agreed that the constitutional court would not be dissolved, but that its power regarding the election would be transferred to the independent election committee.13 Subsequently, although Patass rejected the agreement—saying that he had not authorized Luc Apollinaire Dondon, the first vice-president of the MPLC, to sign it—the MLPC announced that it would support the candidacy of Zigul,13 who had previously been running as an independent. http://www.afriquecentrale.info/fr/news/news.asp?rubID=1&srubID=4&themeID=1&newsID=1795 An official list of candidates, including 11 of them and excluding only Patass, was published by the election commission on January 26, following the agreement.14 Elections will also be held to fill the 105 seats of the national assembly, whose members will serve five-year terms. Initially, 261 of 970 candidates were barred from running by the electoral commission on January 10, but on January 21 a court ruling permitted 219 of the 261 to run, bringing the number of candidates to 928. Boziz's wife Monique was among the 709 candidates who were initially approved on January 10. http://www.lintelligent.com/pays/centrafrique/gabarit_art.asp?art_cle=AFP64035letrisevita0 The 2005 election will mark the first time that the country's voters will use a single ballot in each of the two polls, presidential and parliamentary, and an awareness campaign about this was launched on February 2. Previously, a multiple ballot system had been used in elections. The information campaign continued until February 26. http://www.afriquecentrale.info/fr/news/news.asp?rubID=1&srubID=4&themeID=1&newsID=1846 Subsequently, the campaign for the elections began on the morning of February 26 and lasted until midnight on March 11. http://www.afriquecentrale.info/fr/news/news.asp?rubID=1&srubID=4&themeID=1&newsID=1863 Partial results (28.9% of polling stations, or 1,198 out of 4,145 stations) from the election on March 18 put Boziz in the lead with about 55% of the votes, according to the election commission: 184,734 out of 334,732 votes counted were for Boziz. This was over 140,000 votes more than his nearest rivals, Zigul and Kolingba, who took 12.86% (43,058 votes) and 12.65% (42,374 votes) of the vote respectively.15 The opposition Union of Active Forces of the Nation, a grouping of Boziz's rivals, has denounced the elections on the grounds of alleged fraud and irregularities, and it has called for the elections to be declared null. On the other hand, election observers have endorsed the vote as free and fair.16 At the end of March, official results were announced: Boziz came in first with just under 43% of the votes, while Zigul came in second with 23.5%. A run-off between the two will be held on May 1. Turn-out among voters was said to have been just over 68%. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1511&ncid=1511&e=8&u=/afp/20050331/wl_afp/centrafricavotecommission_050331115903 In the parliamentary elections, contested by a total of 909 candidates, 17 of the 105 seats were won outright in the first round; the remainder will be decided in the second round on May 1. Convergence Kwa Na Kwa, the coalition supporting Boziz, did not win any seats in the first round. Among those who did win seats were Jean-Paul Ngoupand, also a presidential candidate, and Mireille Kolingba, the wife of presidential candidate Andr Kolingba. Three of the presidential candidates who were defeated in the first round, Abel Goumba, Charles Massi, and Henri Pouzre, will be running in the parliamentary second round. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46440&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_AFRICAN_REPUBLIC Results | owspan="2" colspan="2" align="left"|Candidate (Party) | colspan="2"|First Round | colspan="2"|Second Round | | lign="center"|Number of Votes | align="center"|% of Votes | align="center"|Number of Votes | align="center"|% of Votes | | olspan="2"|Franois Boziz (Independent) | align="center"|382,241 | align="center"|42.97% | colspan="2" align="center"|To be held on 1 May 2005 | | olspan="2"|Martin Zigul (Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People) | align="center"|209,357 | align="center"|23.53% | colspan="2" align="center"|To be held on 1 May 2005 | | olspan="2"|Andr Kolingba (Central African Democratic Rally) | align="center"|145,495 | align="center"|16.36% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Jean-Paul Ngoupand (National Unity Party) | align="center"|45,182 | align="center"|5.08% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Charles Massi (Democratic Forum for Modernity) | align="center"|28,618 | align="center"|3.22% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Abel Goumba (Patriotic Front for Progress) | align="center"|22,297 | align="center"|2.51% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Henri Pouzre (Independent) | align="center"|18,647 | align="center"|2.10% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Josu Binoua (Independent) | align="center"|13,559 | align="center"|1.52% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Jean-Jacques Dmafouth (Independent) | align="center"|11,279 | align="center"|1.27% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Auguste Boukanga (Union for Renewal and Democracy) | align="center"|7,085 | align="center"|0.80% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Olivier Gabirault (Alliance for Democracy and Progress) | align="center"|5,834 | align="center"|0.66% | align="center"|- | align="center"|- | | olspan="2"|Total Votes | align="center"|889,594 | align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"| | References - Agence France-Presse (AFP), "Central African Republic sets dates in 2005 for elections", August 28, 2004.
- Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), "Election postponed, but most banned candidates can now run", January 25, 2005.
- IRIN, "Bozize to contest presidency as independent candidate", December 13, 2004.
- AFP, "Electoral commission appointed in Central African Republic", May 25, 2004.
- AFP, "Patasse to run as party's candidate in Central African Republic vote", November 22, 2004.
- AFP, "Veteran vice president to contest Central African election", December 16, 2004.
- "La cour const. carte une majorit d'adversaires de Boziz", December 30, 2004.
- AFP, "Opposition presidential candidate chosen in Central Africa", May 20, 2004.
- IRIN, "Bozize repeals court ban on some presidential candidates", January 5, 2005.
- AFP, "Central African candidates reject president's idea and court ruling", January 5, 2005.
- AFP, "CAR president hits out at barred rivals", January 15, 2005.
- AFP, "Central African president reaches election deal with rivals", January 22, 2005.
- Xinhua, "Negotiations of Central African Republic crisis end in Gabon", January 23, 2005.
- AFP, "Central African presidential candidate officially cleared to run", January 27, 2005.
- AFP, "Bozize leads in C.African polls", March 18, 2005.
- AFP, "Central African opposition wants March 13 vote declared null", March 22, 2005.
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