Opposition slams Central African Republic constitutional vote

The opposition party in the Central African Republic on Thursday slammed last weekend’s constitutional referendum, which would allow President Faustin-Archange Touadera to seek a third term.

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The main opposition parties, civil groups and armed rebels had all called on voters to boycott the referendum held on Sunday.

Opposition leader Crepin Mboli-Goumba called the vote a “bitter failure” and said the turnout had been as low as “10 to 13 percent” of the electorate.

“This vote was only a masquerade… because Bangui looked like a ghost town,” Mboli-Goumba told a press conference in the capital.

“It was with great satisfaction that we have noted the people are with us” because they did not vote in large numbers, he added.

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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

The Coalition of Patriots for Change, the main rebel alliance emerging from the civil war that started 2013, said polling stations “remained deserted” in almost the whole country.

It said the turnout “cannot exceed five percent” and accused Touadera of attempting to “annihilate democracy and the rule of law” in the CAR, which has endured several coups in its history.

National assembly vice-president and presidential majority spokesman Evariste Ngamana said the day after the ballot that there had been a participation rate of 70 percent, claiming the country’s population had “massively turned out to vote”.

According to him, the “yes” vote had won by 90 percent.

The proposed new constitution would extend the presidential mandate from five to seven years and abolish the two-term limit.

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Voters had to choose between a white ballot for “yes” and a red one for “no”.

Several voters told AFP journalists that they were encouraged by election officials to choose “yes” when casting their ballots.

Provisional results, which must be published within eight days of the ballot, had still not been released on Thursday.

The constitutional court is scheduled to publish the definitive outcome on August 27, according to the national electoral authority.

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President Touadera’s rivals charge that he wants to remain “president for life” — under the increasingly visible protection of private Russian mercenary group Wagner, which first deployed to the CAR in 2018.