Supporters of Central African Republic`s president Faustin Archange Touadera are rejoicing to see him win the presidential election.
The electoral commission in C.A.R. declared winner of the December 27 presidential election, saying the incumbent president Touadéra, has been re-elected after securing nearly 54% of the votes.
There were a total of 16 candidates running for president – including three women.
Opposition candidates have said the election was riddled with massive irregularities.
A supporter told the media he was satisfied with the result of the elections because “professor Faustin Archange Touadera is a candidate that the people appreciate.”
With security levels at stake, the voting did not take place at all in 29 of the country’s 71 sub-prefectures and was curtailed in six others. Some locals are now worried about these current trends.
“what we like is peace. We don’t like rebellion, we don’t like unrest. May the world lives in peace, may the children go to school, the political class keep quiet and the rebels keep quiet,” a local said.
Touadera is now faced with an uphill task thwart the ever-growing rebellion from several armed groups in the Central African Republic.
Touadera, 63, a former prime minister with an academic background in mathematics, won a first term as president in 2016, the first elections after a coup and civil war that erupted three years earlier.
– farce –
Criticisms about the credibility of his victory were muted at the time — many saw the ballot, however flawed, as the price to pay for stability.
During his post-electoral honeymoon, Touadera gained an image as hard-working, competent and self-effacing. His supporters even found him too modest.
Today, though, Touadera’s detractors see him as the head of a “predator government”, rife with corruption, prolonging a scourge that has beset the car for decades.
Others say he was conned by the militias that hold sway over two-thirds of the country, sporadically attacking civilians and the army and fighting over mineral riches.
The opposition was quick to pile on the criticism after his re-election vanquished rival Anicet Georges Dologuele, who called the election a “farce”.
Voters in more than a third of the country’s sub-prefectures had been unable to cast their ballots because of a renewed offensive by militia groups.
Touadera struck a peace accord with 14 armed groups in february 2019, essentially bringing warlords into the government or administration.
The agreement alienated many in the population who had suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of militias.
“the accord weakened the president,” said Thierry Vircoulon, a car expert at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI).
To his supporters, Touadera has had to take on one of the world’s most thankless jobs.
The vote took place despite an offensive by a coalition of armed rebel groups which left thousands unable to cast their ballots.
On Sunday, rebel fighters attacked and partially occupied a diamond-mining town.
Four security, humanitarian sources and the U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSCA said in a statement at least five rebels were killed and two army soldiers wounded in the clashes in Bangassou, which lies on the southern border with Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rebels, whom the government and united nations say are backed by former president Francois Bozize, launched an offensive last month after the constitutional court rejected Bozize’s candidacy to challenge president Faustin-Archange Touadera in last Sunday’s vote.
Threats and attacks by the rebels kept more than 14% of polling stations closed on election day.
