He accuses the Central African Country’s ruling party of manipulating results.
On Friday, opposition candidate and former Central African Republic Prime Minister Anicet Georges Dologuele declared himself the winner of the Dec. 28 election and accused the ruling United Hearts Movement (MCU) of attempting to manipulate the results.
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“When you come out of an election with good results, you remain calm and wait for the official announcement. But look at what is happening today, all these images circulating on social media. Since elections began in this country in 1981, we have never seen a situation like this, with so much nervousness and so much fear on the part of the ruling party,” Dologuele said.
Following the start of the release of provisional results by the National Electoral Authority (ANE), several candidates challenged the electoral process and denounced irregularities in the transmission of vote tally sheets.
“The ruling party is doing everything possible to manipulate the election results: they are breaking so-called tamper-proof envelopes to extract the official reports and alter them, sometimes even on the spot. I have been told that in Bangui, in a private residence, blank official reports are being filled in with falsified results,” stated Dologuele, who leads the Union for Central African Renewal (URCA) party.
“I am sure of it, because the heads of the polling stations have confessed that they received instructions not to hand over the reports. When my representatives and some of my parliamentary candidates requested them, they were told everything would be changed,” he added.
La gendarmerie sénégalaise a réaffirmé son engagement pour la paix internationale à travers l’action de la SENFPU2, déployée en République centrafricaine au sein de la MINUSCA. Basée à Berberati, l’unité a contribué à la sécurisation des élections présidentielle, législatives,… pic.twitter.com/1wAqTk7lds
— RTS SENEGAL (@RTS1_Senegal) January 2, 2026
The text reads, “The Senegalese police reaffirmed its commitment to international peace through the action of the SENFPU2, deployed in the Central African Republic as part of MINUSCA. The Berberati-based unit contributed to guaranteeing the presidential, legislative, regional and municipal elections of December 28, 2025, which were organized amid a sensitive institutional and security context.”
On Dec. 30, about 48 hours after polls closed, electoral authorities issued a statement demanding that tally sheets be given to candidates’ representatives.
“We received complaints from the candidates, particularly about the delivery of the tally sheets. We raised this matter with the ANE, which led to the publication of the statement,” explained Arsene Gbaguidi, the electoral affairs director of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
Dologuele said he would await the decision of the Constitutional Council, which must rule definitively on the results between Jan. 15 and 16.
Seven candidates competed for the presidency, including incumbent Faustin-Archange Touadera and former prime ministers Anicet Georges Dologuele and Henri-Marie Dondra. The candidate who obtains more than 50% of the votes will be elected in the first round. If this does not happen, candidates will participate in a runoff.
Touadera was able to run after spearheading a 2023 referendum, which approved a constitutional change extending the presidential term from five to seven years and removing the two-term limit for the head of state. That amendment allowed the 68-year-old president, who has been in power since 2016, to run for a third term.
A major opposition platform, the Republican Bloc for the Defense of the Constitution (BRDC), boycotted the 2025 election, citing unfair conditions and a lack of democratic dialogue.
Since late 2012, the Central African Republic has experienced an intermittent civil war that has caused thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displacements.
#FromTheSouth News Bits | Africa: Clashes have reignited in Uvira, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, between government forces and M-23 rebels. pic.twitter.com/KYXXZrkkCh
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) January 1, 2026
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Source: EFE
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