C. Africa opposition says to withdraw from ‘sham’ election
BANGUI - A coalition of opposition parties in the Central African Republic said Tuesday they would withdraw from parliamentary elections, a day after the constitutional court rejected attempts to annul the first round of voting.
“By declaring the results of the first round final despite numerous irregularities, massive fraud and violence, the constitutional court has confirmed that the parliamentary elections were a sham,” the Coalition of the Democratic Opposition( COD 2020) said in a statement.
The bloc added that it would “withdraw completely from this catastrophic process”.
The CAR’s top court on Monday invalidated the results of the vote in 13 out of 140 constituencies, citing irregularities including “manipulation of ballot boxes... (and) acts of violence”.
The outcome in 58 other constituencies in the 140-seat legislature remains unclear, as voting could not take place there because of insecurity.
Incumbent President Faustin Archange Touadera won reelection in the first round on the same day as the parliamentary poll, according to official results - on a turnout of just 35%.
One of the world’s poorest countries, the CAR has been locked in violence since 2013, when its then president, Francois Bozize, was overthrown.
The resulting war divided the country largely along religious and ethnic lines, causing thousands of deaths and prompting around a quarter of the population to flee their homes.
Touadera’s government, despite being supported by UN, Russian and Rwandan forces, only controls around a third of the territory.
The remaining two-thirds is in the hands of armed groups, which often fight over the country’s rich mineral wealth.