Dec 23 (Reuters) – President Faustin-Archange Touadera will face six other candidates in a presidential election to be held in Central African Republic on December 28, after a court rejected attempts to bar his two main rivals.
Here are brief details of Touadera’s opponents:
ANICET-GEORGES DOLOGUELE
Dologuele, 68, is a former prime minister and one of the incumbent’s two main rivals. He served as prime minister in 1999-2001 and ran against Touadera in elections in 2015 and 2020.
Dologuele was the runner-up in the 2020 election, winning 21.6% of the vote. He alleged there were cases of election fraud, though a court upheld Touadera’s win.
This year Touadera’s supporters filed a complaint to bar Dologuele from running over allegations that he held French citizenship, which is not permitted for presidential candidates under the constitution adopted in 2023. Dologuele renounced his French citizenship this year and the Constitutional Court cleared his candidacy.
He is running without the support of the main opposition party, the Republican Bloc for the Defense of the Constitution of March 30, 2016, known by its French acronym BRDC. The party has boycotted the election – which is also for the legislature and regional and municipal positions – over concerns that the vote will not be fair or transparent.
HENRI-MARIE DONDRA
The other main challenger to Touadera, Dondra, 59, is another former prime minister, who served from 2021-2022. The Constitutional Court cleared him to run in the election after Touadera accused him of holding Congolese citizenship, which he denied.
He started his professional career at the Banque Populaire Maroco-Centrafricaine and later spent 18 years mostly overseas at the Fonds Africain de Garantie et de Cooperation Economique (FAGACE), a financial institution that aims to finance bank loans for public and private sector investment. He climbed the ranks there to become director general.
Dondra returned to Bangui in 2016 to serve as finance and budget minister under Touadera until 2021, when he became prime minister.
MARCELIN YALEMENDE
Yalemende, 49, is an evangelical pastor running on a pledge to strengthen the rule of law, improve public services and fight corruption.
He has promised to restore the two-term limit on presidential rule after it was controversially scrapped in a 2023 referendum.
SERGE GHISLAIN DJORIE
Djorie, 49, is a medical doctor specialized in infectious and tropical diseases who has published research with France’s Institut Pasteur in Bangui.
He is a former communications minister under Touadera.
ARISTIDE BRIAND REBOAS
Reboas is a former director of intelligence services and minister of youth and sport.
He ran in the 2020 presidential election, winning less than 1% of the vote.
EDDY SYMPHORIEN KPAREKOUTI
Kparekouti has made the fight against poverty his top issue in the campaign.
A civil engineer, he participated in the drafting of the constitution adopted in 2023.
(Reporting by Dakar and Bangui newsroomWriting by Jessica DonatiEditing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Frances Kerry)
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