Violence closed 800 polling stations in Central African Republic

BANGUI — More than 14 per cent of polling stations in the Central African Republic failed to operate during Sunday's presidential and legislative election as a result of armed rebels who attacked voters and barred electoral staff, the electoral commission said on Monday.

Around 800 out of a total 5,408 polling stations nationwide did not open, Theophile Momokouama, an executive of the electoral authority, told a news conference in Bangui.

"There were localities where voters were brutalized, threatened with death. The electoral staff were forbidden to deploy on the ground," Momokouama said.

The diamond- and goldrich nation of 4.7 million has struggled to stabilise due to a successive waves of militia violence since 2013 that have killed thousands and forced more than a million from their homes.

"As of today, we do not know the proportion of Central Africans who were able to vote," Momokouama said.

Momokouama said the commission was waiting for results from regions for collation. The commission would then forward the provisional results to the constitutional court which will publish them.

The election campaign was marred by threats from armed rebel groups that vowed to march on the capital and disrupt the vote after several candidates, including former President Francois Bozize, were barred from running.

Security forces, helped by more than 12,000 UN peacekeepers, and reinforcement from partners Russia and Rwanda, managed to fend off attacks in the capital and some towns, but rebels were able to stop the vote in some areas of a sparsely populated country larger than France.