CAR president takes early lead
2005-05-11 09:50
Angui - Early results in the presidential poll in the Central African Republic (CAR) put incumbent President Francois Bozize in the lead in the capital Bangui, election officials said on Tuesday.
According to the independent joint electoral commission CEMI Bozize led his rival, former prime minister Martin Ziguele, in five of the capital's eight districts. CEMI chairman Jean Willybiro Sako made results public.
"The general impression we get a little after the first look at the vote is turnout is slightly down on the first round" on March 13 when it was 68.27%, he said.
But he thought turnout overall would top 50%.
He said he was pleased voting had gone off much more smoothly than in the first round, in which Bozize beat Ziguele with 43% of the vote to 23.5%. Other candidates were eliminated.
Counting began on Monday afternoon and by Tuesday night the commission had treated the count in Bangui, Bimbo, the second city, and three of the 16 provinces, a total of 1 032 of the total of 4 143 polling stations.
Polling has also been taking place for 87 seats in the legislative assembly and partial results from that election were expected to be known on Wednesday evening.