The constitutional referendum will hold on December 13 and first round of presidential and legislative elections is slated for December 27, 2015.
Everything being equal, electors in the Central African Republic will go to the polls on December 13, 2015 to vote for the new constitution in a referendum and on December 27, 2015 to vote for the new President of the Republic and Members of the National Assembly. In case no candidate wins absolute majority in the first round of the presidential election of December 27, 2015, electors will once more go to the polls on January 31, 2016 to vote the President of the Republic in the second of round of presidential election.
The new President of the electoral body, National Elections Authority (ANE), Marie Madeleine Hoornaert Koué made public the electoral calendar on Monday, November 9, 2015. The transition President of the Central African Republic, Catherine Samba-Panza signed two decrees yesterday, November 10, 2015 convening electors to the polls for the referendum on December 13, 2015, first round of presidential election and legislative election on December 27, 2015 and second round of the presidential election on January 31, 2015.
The two decrees come to endorse the electoral calendar published the day before, thereby putting an end to speculations that the elections were likely no longer going to be organized in 2015. The electoral calendar had to be modified postponing the referendum from October 4, 2015 and presidential and legislative elections from October 18, 2015 to the present dates due to a high wave of violence that swept across the country in September 2015 rendering the security situation precarious for the polls. The money needed to organize the elections equally had not yet been raised.
The National Elections Authority Chairperson Marie Madeleine Hoornaert Koué, while publishing the new electoral calendar in a press conference, said it took into account the exigencies of the electoral code with regard to the deadline in convening electors to the polls, news agency reports say. She assured that the electoral body will ensure that the calendar is respected. Hoornaert Koué also gave updates on the ongoing operation to publish the provisional electoral lists that started on Monday, November 9, 2015.
