A top candidate in presidential elections in the Central African Republic, Martin Ziguele, wants a manual recount of first-round votes because of alleged irregularities, his party said on Monday. Ziguele, a former prime minister who came fourth out of 30 hopefuls in the December 30 vote, plans to go to the Constitutional Court to “demand a manual recount of the voting slips”, according to the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (MLPC). The party accused the National Authority for Elections (ANE) of breaching the electoral code as it released figures “each day muddling up different (administrative districts) with varying rates of vote counting, rendering any checks and follow-up impossible.”
Nearly two million people were eligible to vote in the election seen as the way out of more than two years of sectarian bloodshed that has forced about one in 10 of the nation’s 4.9 million people to flee their homes.
Provisional first-round results show former government heads Georges Dologuele and Faustin Archange Touadera poised to face off for presidential office in the second round on January 31 after leading the field of 30 candidates.
Full Article: Central African Republic vote recount demanded | News24.
