Sawt Falasteen - Campaigning starts in Central African Republic quadruple election

Besides national, regional and municipal lawmakers, Centrafricans are set to pick their president, with incumbent Faustin-Archange Touadera in pole position out of a seven-strong field after modifying the constitution to allow him to seek a third term.

Thousands of supporters packed into a 20,000-seater stadium in the capital Bangui on Saturday to listen to Touadera, accused by the opposition of wishing to cling on as president-for-life in one of the world's poorest countries.

In his speech, Touadera, who was first elected in 2016 in the middle of a bloody civil war, styled himself as a defender of the country's young people and insisted there was work to do to curb ongoing unrest.

"The fight for peace and security is not over," the president warned the packed stands.

"We must continue to strengthen our army in order to guarantee security throughout the national territory and preserve the unity of our country."

Both of Touadera's top critics on the ballot paper, ex-prime minister Henri-Marie Dondra and the main opposition leader Anicet-Georges Dologuele, had feared they would be barred from the election over nationality requirements.

Touring the capital's districts alongside a travelling convoy, Dologuele warned that the upcoming vote represents "a choice for national survival; a choice between resignation and hope".

"Our people have experienced 10 years of this regime. Ten years of waiting, promises and suffering," he added.

- Security woes -

Dologuele, who previously made a tilt for the top job in 2020, said in September that he had given up his French nationality to conform with the requirement -- also imposed by the 2023 constitutional tinkering -- for candidates to hold only one citizenship.

But the courts then stripped him of his Centrafrican passport in mid-October, prompting Dologuele to file a complaint to the United Nations' human rights office.

A leading opposition coalition, the Republican Bloc for the Defence of the Constitution of March 2016, announced in early October that it would boycott the election, accusing Touadera's government of rigging the vote.

By the electoral authority's count, some 2.3 million voters are expected at the ballot box, of whom 749,000 will have been enrolled for the first time.

The end-of-year polls had been delayed multiple times over issues with the electoral roll and funding, as well as concerns over the country's long-running security woes.

Since independence from France in 1960, the Central African Republic has seen a succession of conflicts, civil wars and military coups.

In recent years, the intervention of a United Nations peacekeeping mission, Rwandan troops and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner paramilitary group has helped to improve the security situation.

Yet anti-government fighters are still at large on the country's main highways, as well as in the east near the borders with war-ravaged Sudan and South Sudan.

N.Awad--SF-PST