PREVIEW: Central African Republic election looks to end instability

By Michael Logan Jan 20, 2011, 15:20 GMT

Nairobi/Bangui - The Central African Republic (CAR) goes to the polls to elect a new president Sunday, hoping to put decades of coups, counter-coups and rebellions behind it.

The residents of the impoverished country have had little to cheer about since independence from France in 1960.

Self-declared emperor and brutal dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa ruled from 1966 until 1979, when he was overthrown in a French-backed coup. Since then, the country has struggled to escape the cycle of ousters and armed rebellion.

The current president, Francois Bozize, is standing again and will be optimistic of regaining power after winning 64 per cent of the vote in 2005 - an election that consolidated his position two years after he seized control of the landlocked nation in a coup.

Ange-Felix Patasse, the man Bozize deposed, is standing as an independent candidate after returning from exile in Togo, along with a collection of politicians, former ministers and an ex-rebel leader.

Patasse was removed from power despite calling in the aid of a Congolese rebel group under Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is currently standing trial in the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes carried out against civilians in CAR.

Accusations of fraud have been raised before the poll, which was originally due to take place in April 2010 but was twice postponed.

Earlier this month, four of the candidates, including former prime minister Martin Ziguele of the Movement for the Liberation of Central African People (MLPC), accused the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) of violating the electoral code and preparing to usher Bozize back into power.

'This deliberate approach has the sole goal of giving Francois Bozize effective control of the electoral process, with a view to guaranteeing his fraudulent re-election ... before the vote,' the candidates said in a statement carried on the MPLC website.

The election comes amid a backdrop of unrest from domestic armed groups - despite a peace process that began in 2008 - and Uganda's infamous rebel group The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has launched deadly raids on villages in CAR.

United Nations peacekeepers, numbering over 5,000 at their peak, pulled out last year after the joint mission to CAR and neighbouring Chad was terminated, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to warn of the danger posed to CAR's stability by armed groups.

'Despite the notorious menace of LRA, the threat posed by this single group is not assessed to be as significant as other internal factors,' Ban said in December.

'The major source of insecurity comes from banditry and transients who bring arms to sell, but the most urgent threat stems from armed internal political opposition groups - especially the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP).'

The CPJP in November launched attacks in then northern city of Birao, killing four soldiers and two civilians, according to the International Crisis Group.

Just short of 2 million people are registered to vote out of the population of 4.5 million, according to the CEI.