CAR President Faustin Touadera Announces Re-Election Campaign

Faustin-Archange Touadera, current president of the Central African Republic, is running for re-election this December. (Kremlin)

Faustin-Archange Touadera, the Central African Republic’s incumbent president, announced that he would seek another term in office on September 26.

The presidential election, currently scheduled for December 27, could experience delay at the hands of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The coronavirus is exacerbating existing vulnerabilities,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix. 

The CAR’s constitutional court denied Touadera and his parliamentary supporters’ request to stay in power on June 5 in the case of a coronavirus-related election postponement, solidifying the currently-scheduled election date for now.

Following a two-year civil war between Christian and Muslim sects that was catalyzed by the former president’s exile from the capital of Bangui, President Touadera

First elected in February 2016 following a two-year civil war between Christian and Muslim sects that saw the previous president’s exile from the capital of Bangui, Touadera won a landslide victory, with two-thirds of the vote, by appealing to the populace’s desire for peace and security.

The Political Accord for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central Africal Republic, a peace agreement between the government and 14 paramilitary groups, came into force in February 2019. However, the countryside continues to experience turmoil, with approximately two-thirds of the country controlled by armed militias.

Despite ongoing insecurity, Touadera has succeeded in stimulating the economy. According to The African Development Bank, the Central African Republic has seen a steady increase in real GDP growth between 2018 and 2019 thanks to growth in the agriculture and mining industries.

While popular, President Touadera faced strong competition in December from his predecessor Francois Bozize. Bozize fled to Uganda following a violent takeover of Bangui in 2013 by a Muslim rebel group from Northern CAR known as Séléka. He has now returned a year before the election in order to meet the country’s residential requirement to make the ballot.

Bozize and Touadera represent two very different choices in this election. Touadera, a member of the United Hearts Movement coalition, has garnered the support of the UN peacekeeping mission in CAR. Meanwhile,  the UN has sanctioned former president Bozize, the leader of the Kwa na Kwa Party (KnK), for assisting pro-Christian militiamen who allegedly killed 7,000 Muslims following his 2013 overthrow.

Political tensions have already risen between the two camps as the elections near. For instance, the National Assembly voted to extend the COVID-related postponement of the voter registration period despite a 10-hour filibuster by Bozize sympathizers.

“The government’s goal is to have elections in a cavalier manner,” said COD-20-20 lawmaker Aurelien Zingas following the passage of the resolution. Bozize’s KnK party makes up a part of the COD-20-20 coalition.

Bozize took office in a military coup in 2013. The UN has alleged that he backed the militia group Antibalaka, meaning “anti-AK-47” in Sango, a rival group of the Séléka movement which unseated him. As a result of the infighting, one in five of CAR’s citizens either became displaced or had to flee to neighboring countries.

Nevertheless, Bozize believes that the CAR “needs a man of experience, conviction, and peace,” he said of himself in a speech that criticized President Touadera.