Bozize set to win election
2005-05-05 10:17
Bangui - Incumbent president Francois Bozize is set to defeat challenger Martin Ziguele when about 1.5 million people in the Central African Republic vote in the final round of presidential elections on Sunday, but the outcome of simultaneous legislative polls seem less clear.
There have been no major incidents of violence since the first ballot was cast on March 13 and the elections should mark the end of a transition to a democracy started in March 2003 when Bozize overthrew Ange-Felix Patasse in a coup d'etat.
Bozize won nearly 43% in the first round and goes into the second having rallied two first round rivals to his camp who took around eight percent at the fist poll, which would give him the hope of at least 50% on Sunday.
Ziguele, rejected by many since he was prime minister under Patasse, an elected ruler whose reign was marked by unrest and corruption, collected 23.5% in the first round and has been campaigning under the slogan "Martin Ziguele is not the candidate of ex-President Patasse".
Ziguele had rallied the support of nine first-round-candidates, support that has been withered down by Bozize luring two candidates away and by the loss of backing from Andre Kolingba, a former president and general who took more than 16% in the first round.
Patasse's presence still lingers
Haunting the election is the memory of Patasse, who is in exile in Togo, and of so-called "Banyamulenge" militias he invited in from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2001 and 2002 to back him against coup attempts.
Patasse was ousted by Bozize, his one-time armed forces chief of staff, but the scars left by the actions of the "Banyamulenge" remain vivid and Bozize has cashed in on this in a campaign.
These Banyamulenge were not the ethnic Tutsi inhabitants of the east of the vast DRC, but their name was borrowed by Bangui's people from rebels just across the border in the north of the neighbouring country, who wreaked havoc for days before going home once the political unrest was over.
Bozize's ouster of Patasse was widely welcomed in 2003, since he pledged to put an end to such mayhem, crack down hard on corruption, restore law and order, and eventually turn the country back over to elected politicians.
Unaligned factions in parliament
While Bozize is confident of becoming president, the National Convergence — the Kwa Na Kwa movement backing him fared poorly in the first round. It was outstripped by Ziguele's well-oiled and long-installed Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (MLPC) and Kolingba's Central African Democratic Rally (RDC).
There are 88 of the 105 seats still to be decided and it seems whoever wins the presidency will have to deal with a range of as yet unaligned factions in parliament.
"Alliances are still weak, they will be played out once the composition of the assembly is known," said one diplomat.