Central African Republic elections, 2005 - Definition

10 other candidates will also contest the presidential election, including one former president and three former prime ministers (one of whom is the current vice-president). André Kolingba, who ruled the Central African Republic from 1981 until his defeat by Ange-Félix Patassé in the 1993 election, is one of these candidates. He came in second in the September 1999 election, although Patassé 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 Bozizé's seizure of power. Additionally, Martin Ziguélé, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2003 (Patassé's last prime minister prior to his ouster), will contest the election, along with Jean-Paul Ngoupandé (of the Parti de l'Unite Nationale), who was prime minister from 1996 to 1997.

The other candidates are former defense minister Jean-Jacques Démafouth, the lawyer Henri Pouzère, Charles Massi (of the Forum pour la Democratie et la Modernité), Olivier Gabirault, and Pasteur Josué Binoua.

Events and controversy

In May 2004, Bozizé approved 30 members of a independent, mixed electoral commission (CEMI) 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 Konaré, the chairman of the commission of the African Union and former president of Mali, reportedly urged Bozizé not to stand for election. Bozizé 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, in disparaging terms, that Konare had spoken to him about it, and emphasized 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-Félix Patassé, who presently lives in exile in Togo following his 2003 ouster by Bozizé, was nominated as the presidential candidate of his party, the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (Mouvement pour la Libération du Peuple Centrafricain, MLPC).⁵ In December, Abel Goumba and Henri Pouzère submitted applications to run.⁶

On December 30, the transitional constitutional court decided that all but five candidates—Bozizé, André Kolingba, Abel Goumba, Henri Pouzère, and former minister Auguste Boukanga—would be excluded from running for various reasons. Patassé 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 Démafouth, 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). [2] (http://www.tchadforum.com/?page=article_item&aid=607) The other candidates who were rejected were Martin Ziguélé, Jean-Paul Ngoupandé, Charles Massi, Olivier Gabirault, and Pasteur Josué 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. Fidèle Gouandjika, who took less than 1% of the vote in the 1999 presidential election, [3] (http://africanelections.tripod.com/cf.html) withdrew in favor of Bozizé about a week before the decision. [4] (http://www.africatime.com/Centrafrique/nouvelle.asp?no_nouvelle=164388&no_categorie=PRESSE) Joseph Bendounga, a former mayor of Bangui and an opponent of Bozizé'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 Dérant-Lakoué, who was prime minister for several months in 1993 and took a little more than 1% in the 1999 election, [5] (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, Bozizé made a conciliatory gesture on January 4 by announcing that three of the disqualified candidates would be permitted to run: Jean-Paul Ngoupandé, Martin Ziguélé, 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 Patassé, 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 Bozizé 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 Bozizé's own candidacy.¹⁰ For his part, Bozizé 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

On January 22, the controversy was effectively resolved through the signing of the Libreville Agreement, mediated by Gabonese president Omar Bongo, which allowed all the candidates except Patassé to participate and brought the total number of candidates to 11.² 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.¹² Subsequently, although Patassé 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 Ziguélé,¹³ who had previously been running as an independent. [6] (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 Patassé, was published by the election commission on January 26, following the agreement.¹³

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. Bozizé's wife Monique was among the 709 candidates who were initially approved on January 10. [7] (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 for both the presidential and parliamentary polls, and an awareness campaign about this was launched in early February.¹⁴

References