Foreign Policy Blogs

The Central African Republic's Contested Election

Last Sunday voters in the Central African Republic went to the polls and overwhelmingly gave President Francois Bozize’s party a large majority.

Well, some voters did. The problem is that the opposition called for a boycott of the polling to protest the first round of voting in January. According to reports: “The opposition has condemned both elections as fraudulent and demanded the results be cancelled.”

Telling, that use of passive voice: Canceled by whom?

The Central African Republic has a long history of instability. This election is unlikely to begin a new phase in the country’s political development.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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