Central African court permits two former prime ministers to vote against Touadera
Faustin-Archange Touadera, the president of the Central African Republic, will run against six opponents in a presidential election on December 28 after a court denied pleas to exclude two former prime ministers from running against him.
Touadera, who assumed office in 2016, had said in July that he will seek a third term, hoping to continue ruling for a second decade after doing away with term limits in 2023. The nation’s highest electoral court, the Constitutional Council, formally approved the seven candidates on Friday.
Opponents of past prime ministers Henri-Marie Dondra and Anicet-Georges Dologuele have contested their candidacies, claiming that they were dual citizens of France and Congo, respectively.
However, the court let them to compete because it could not discover any proof that either of them was a foreign national.
In addition to serving as prime minister from 1999 to 2001, Dologuele challenged Touadera in the 2015 and 2020 elections. Under Touadera, Dondra was prime minister from 2021 to 2022.
The nation’s foreign allies, who demand an inclusive election that conforms to democratic norms, have been closely following the court’s ruling, a Western diplomat told Reuters under condition of anonymity.
MINUSCA, a U.N. peacekeeping force, announced late Thursday that its mandate had been extended for another year. With this extension, Central African authorities would be able to depend on U.N. personnel to help ensure the polls are secure.
