The international community and CAR authorities stepped up efforts to ensure calm and peaceful polls.

The Secretary General of the United Nations Organisation (UNO), Ban Ki-moon on the eve of the first round of the presidential election and the legislative election of December 30, 2015  called on all political actors in the Central African Republic  to commit themselves in order to guarantee peaceful and credible elections.

He also called on the authorities in the country to work in close collaboration with the UN peace mission, MINUSCA to curb subsequent trouble during the elections. Ban Ki-moon used the occasion to enjoin candidates to seek   legal redress to all complaints.

The intervention of the UN is one just in a multitude intended to ensure the conduct of peaceful elections whose ultimate goal is to have elected leaders to take over from the Catherine Samba-Panza –led transition government. While Ban Ki-moon intervened from New York, his Special Representative in the Central African Republic, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga on December 28 summoned the 30 candidates for the presidential election and stressed the necessity for the electoral process to continue.

The Chinese news agency, Xinhua stated Stephane Dujarric, Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman as saying that the candidates took the commitment to file all electoral complaints to the Constitutional Court as provided for in the Electoral Code and the Code of Good Conduct.

However, all was not the bed of roses when the National Elections Authority started to  publish partial results of the election as they trickled in from different parts of the country. On January 5, over 20 candidates in the race called for a stop to vote counting and the entire electoral process, advancing reasons of irregularities. At this stage, Prime Minister Mahamat Kamoun called on the candidates to respect their commitment for the supreme interest of the nation,  as well as reminded them of the terms of the Code of Good Conduct they signed.

 Government stood firm on the fact that the electoral process could not be stopped and instead called on the population to be calm, vigilante and not to give in to manipulations.  In a positive outcome,  the protesting candidates  finally opted for continuation of the process.

Only Martin Ziguélé, candidate of the Movement for the Liberation of the People of the Central African Republic who came fourth in the partial results of the presidential election has so far indicated that he will file a complaint at the Constitutional Court to  request for a manual recount of the votes  and checking of the centralizing and processing chain of the electoral data.

The other candidates have accepted the partial results of January 7, 2016 that put   Anicet-Georges Dologuélé on the led with 23.78 per cent of the votes cast and Faustin Archange Touadéra second with 19.24 per cent of the votes.  Electors will choose the future leader from the two candidates in the second round of the polls on January 31, 2016.

Even as  preparations heat up for the second round of the polls, the  Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga has continued with  his peace crusade as he called on the two finalists to  preserve the spirit of peace and calm. He invited them to prepare their supporters for a campaign done in the spirit of calm and civic responsibility.