2023-08-08 05:58:52
Faustin-Archange Touadéra will have the right to ask voters to keep the keys to the Central African Republic. A draft new constitution, which should allow the president to run for another term in 2025, has been approved by an overwhelming majority in a referendum, the National Elections Authority (ANE) announced on Monday.
In the July 30 election, voters voted 95.27% in favor of “yes”, against 4.73% for “no”, and the participation rate was 61.10%, a declared the president of the ANE, Mathias Morouba. The vote, the outcome of which was in little doubt, was boycotted by the main opposition parties and civil society organizations, as well as by armed rebel groups. These “provisional” results must be ratified by the Constitutional Court responsible for settling the electoral dispute, before proclaiming the final results on August 27.
An extended presidential term of two years
First elected in 2016, Faustin-Archange Touadéra was re-elected in 2020 after a poll disrupted by rebel armed groups and marred by accusations of fraud.
With this new fundamental law which removes the limit on the number of terms of the president, and even extends it from five to seven years, no obstacle prevents the 66-year-old head of state from running for the presidency a third time in 2025. If elected, he could reach 16 years at the head of this country of 5.4 million inhabitants.
Wagner on site since 2018
The Central African opposition had not waited for the results of the ballot to denounce a “masquerade” and qualify the July 30 vote as a “bitter failure”, accusing Faustin-Archange Touadéra of wanting to remain “president for life” of one of the poorest countries in the world, all under the protection of mercenaries from the Russian private security company Wagner, deployed in the country since 2018.
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