The appeals of the rivals of the Central African President Faustin Archange Touadéra were rejected by the Constitutional Court.
The latter was officially elected with 53.16% of the vote.
Faustin Archange Touadéra "is proclaimed reelected President of the Republic in the first round of the election of December 27, 2020", declared, Monday January 18, the president of the supreme court, Danièle Darlan.
The Court, however, lowered the participation rate to 35.25%, far from the 76.31% of registrants provisionally announced on January 4.
His opponents denounced "massive fraud" and the impossibility for two out of three voters to vote.
Elections under pressure
The presidential election, held at the same time as the legislative elections, took place under the threat of a new offensive by a rebel coalition in a country in civil war two-thirds controlled by armed groups.
On December 19, a coalition of the main armed groups which share two thirds of the country had thus sworn to "take control of the whole territory".
Faustin-Archange Touadéra immediately denounced an "attempted coup" under the orders of François Bozizé, the former president ousted in 2013 and whose presidential candidacy had been invalidated two weeks earlier by the Constitutional Court.
François Bozizé, who appeared to be the only one who could endanger a re-election of the outgoing president, first denied any collusion with the rebel coalition before publicly supporting it on election day.
On Monday, the Bangui prosecutor's office announced the opening of an investigation against the former president, in particular for "rebellions".
With AFP
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