Central African Republic: Effective registration of voters begins

Transition President Catherine Samba-Panza launched the operation on June 29, 2015.

The Transition President of the Central African Republic, Catherine Samba-Panza has called on the population of voting age to register in the electoral registers and vote during the country’s presidential and legislative elections coming up on October 18, 2015 and a subsequent second round on November 22, 2015, Afrique Actualité reports. She officially launched the registration operation in the 7th Subdivision of the capital city, Bangui on Monday, June 29, 2015.

After enrolling in the electoral register, Catherine Samba-Panza declared that as the transition Head of State, she did not want to get registered in an anonymous manner but to openly register in order to give an example to incite the population of voting age to enroll ahead of the general elections, media reports say.

Following the electoral calendar, the one-month registration operation will end on July 27, 2015. The elections organizing body, National Elections Authority (ANE) is in charge of carrying out the registration operation. The voters list will first be used during the referendum to vote the new constitution of the country on October 4, 2015 and four days later, it will serve for the general elections of October 18.

The registration operation is the first baptism of fire and true test of efficiency for the National Elections Authority as some key obstacles have to be cleared to ensure its success.

Despite the difficulties, there are high hopes for the success of the registration operation considering the hustle and bustle of scores of aspirants for the post of the President of the Republic. Each aspiring candidate will campaign for their supporters to get enrolled in the electoral register in order to maximize their chances of winning.

Different personalities and stakeholders have joined the crusade to woo potential voters to register. Bienvenu Paradis Gbadora, a close aide of the former President François Bozize, reports say, has called on youths to register and tolerate the registration agents effectively do their work to ensure peace which is for the wellbeing of all the citizens.