Felix Nkambeh Tih
05 January 2016•Update: 05 January 2016
BANGUI, Central African Republic
More than half of the 30 candidates in the Central African Republic’s Dec. 30 presidential election have demanded that the vote count be halted.
The call was made in a joint statement late on Monday, signed by 18 candidates including Karim Meckassoua, a Muslim hopeful and Sylvain Patasse, the son of former president Ange Felix Patasse.
"The electoral process... has revealed serious organizational shortcomings, irregularities and intimidation," the statement said.
"The nature of [these] manipulations fundamentally calls to question the sincerity, transparency and credibility of the elections," the statement said, adding:
"These serious shortcomings that have marred the electoral process will lead to the rejection of the results, inevitably causing [a] new conflagration in the country."
Faustin Archange Touadera – former prime minister during the rule of exiled president Francois Bozize – is leading the presidential poll after 71 percent of votes were counted, the National Election Authority said on Sunday.
The general election – also held on Dec. 30 – is expected to end the transitional government put in place in 2013 when Muslim Seleka rebels ousted Bozize, a Christian who came to power in a 2003 coup.
Rebels then installed Michel Djotodia, a Muslim, as interim president.
Djotodia stepped down in early 2014 to be replaced by Samba-Panza – a Christian – amid a wave of sectarian violence between the two communities.
The presidential election was slated for Oct. 2015 in the war-torn Central African state, but was delayed due to the transitional government’s inability to safeguard the vote.
