The European Union, EU has called for more inclusive and transparent political procedures in the Central African Republic where a new referendum-approved Constitution allows President Faustin Archange Touadéra to seek for a third term in 2025.
The Central African Republic’s Constitutional Court accepted a draft new Constitution that had been supported by more than 95% of voters in a referendum at the end of July. This is one of the world’s poorest countries, where violence has lingered in some areas of the country since the beginning of a war.
The new fundamental law abolishes the limit of two successive presidential terms and extends the duration of these terms from five to seven years, a change denounced by the opposition.
The United States expressed its “deep reservations” about the turnout in the referendum and called on the Central African authorities to announce a date for the holding of new elections.
The main opposition parties and civil society organizations had called for a boycott of the referendum, as had the armed rebel groups which continued to fight, in certain provinces, the army supported by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group.
Elected in 2016, Mr. Touadéra was re-elected in 2020 in a highly contested ballot in which two out of three registered voters were unable to take part due in particular to the violence.
