Central African Republic elections 2005: Encyclopedia II - Central African Republic elections 2005 - Events and controversy

Central African Republic elections 2005 - Events and controversy

In late March 2004, the National Transitional Council voted by a large majority in favor of a bill setting up a body to oversee the planned elections, the Commission électorale mixte indépendante (CEMI), which was initially planned to have 45 to 60 members. [2] This was re-examined by National Transitional Council at the government's request in April 2004, and on April 30, Bozizé issued the decree promulgating it. On May 24, 2004, Bozizé approved 30 members of 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 The 31st and last member of CEMI, its president, was not named at this time, however. The 30 members were sworn in on June 4. Jean Willybiro-Sako was subsequently chosen as president of the commission, selected out of four candidates, two of whom were nominated by the prime minister and two by the president of the National Transitional Council.

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 that Konaré had spoken to him about it, while criticizing Konaré for what he called interference in the country's affairs, and wondering whether he had consulted the opinions of the Central African people before getting involved. He stressed that the matter would depend on the will of the people. Some of his supporters campaigned prominently for him to stand. Thousands walked in Bangui on June 19 to support his candidacy; Bozizé thanked them and asked for time to reflect. [3]

An electoral census was conducted from October 16 to October 29, 2004; it was initially planned to end on October 24 but was extended for several days.

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). [4] 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, [5] withdrew in favor of Bozizé about a week before the decision. [6] 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, [7] 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, who is accused of stealing 70 billion CFA francs from the national treasury, 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

Amidst this tension and controversy, the seven excluded candidates, along with the originally accepted candidates Kolingba and Goumba, called for the mediation of Gabonese president Omar Bongo.¹² On January 22, the matter was effectively resolved through the signing by Bozizé and his rivals of an agreement in Libreville, which allowed all the candidates except Patassé to participate and brought the total number of candidates to 11.² According to the agreement, Patassé would remain barred because he was the subject of judicial proceedings.¹² 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.¹³ 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. [8]

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.¹⁴

Elections were also 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. [9]

The 2005 election marked the first time that the country's voters used a single ballot in each of the two polls, presidential and parliamentary, and an awareness campaign about this was launched on February 2. Previously, a multiple ballot system had been used in elections. The information campaign continued until February 26. [10] Subsequently, the campaign for the elections began on the morning of February 26 and lasted until midnight on March 11. [11]

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events and controversy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki