BANGUI (Reuters) - Two thirds of the 30 candidates standing for president of Central African Republic on Monday demanded the authorities halt the vote count because of what they said were irregularities in the ballot.
Many voters hoped the Dec. 30 poll would restore peace to a country where thousands have died and around 1 million have fled during three years of conflict, but with such dissent from the 20 or so candidates, that may be a forlorn hope.
Results have trickled out slowly but with 34 percent of the vote counted, former prime minister Faustin Archange Touadera was leading with 139,498 votes, followed by another former prime minister, Anicet Georges Dologuele, with 96,728 vote.
The most prominent candidate at the candidates' news conference was Bilal Nzanga-Kolingba, son of a former president, who was running fourth with 50,332 behind Jean Serge Bokassa, the son of a late dictator, who had 66,229 votes, said Julius Rufin Ngouade Baba, national election authority spokesman.
Mainly Muslim rebels from a group called the Seleka seized power in the majority Christian nation in early 2013, provoking reprisals from Christian anti-balaka militias. Leaders have since fuelled a cycle of religious and inter-communal killings.
A U.N. peacekeeping mission and French forces are active in the impoverished country whose resources of cotton, gold, diamonds and uranium are under-exploited.