Central African Republic enrols citizens for first local elections in 36 years

A biometric voter registration exercise is ongoing in war-town Central African Republic (CAR) as the country prepares to hold local elections next year, the first in nearly four decades.

After many weeks of preparation, the voter registration exercise finally started at the close of last month in Bangui and other provinces of the country.

President Faustin-Archange Touadera launched the process in a ceremony in Bangui and was the first to verify if his name features on the electoral list.

The exercise consists of verifying the details of citizens who already registered in 2020, as well as registering those showing up for the very first time.

In a chat with Biometric Update over the weekend, the Head of Communication and Public Relations of the country’s National Elections Authority (ANE), Saint-Régis Zoumiri, said the exercise started in Bangui on November 24 and ended on Saturday December 7. However, it will end in the rest of the country on December 15, he said.

“Everything is going on well so far. There is a high turnout of citizens at registration centers. As I speak to you, we already have very positive results which show that Central African Republic citizens really want to massively take part in the local elections,” Zoumiri told Biometric Update.

“Despite the successes recorded, we have also faced difficulties in terms of logistics and security. With regard to security, the government is doing everything possible at the moment to ensure that the exercise can unfold smoothly in areas where there are heightened security concerns,” he added.

The official said as the exercise is unfolding, there has been huge interest shown by women and youth. “I am talking to you from the town of Berbérati which is very close to Cameroon. We are here to supervise how the process is going on. There is some noticeable enthusiasm from the population, especially from women and youth. They are going to the registration centers to get enrolled.”

“You know, it’s already four years since we had a biometric voter registration to update the voter register. The last time was in 2020. In four years, there are many young people who have attained legal voting age, and who want to register and take part in the voting process,” Zoumiri mentioned.

The biometric voter system in CAR has been supplied by GenKey. Zoumiri said a total of 3,000 biometric enrolment tablets have been deployed on the field, and they are managed by 1,469 registration agents.

CAR is supported by several countries and international development partners such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as it prepares to hold local elections in April next year, as part of the push to stabilize the country which has witnessed socio-political and economic troubles for over a decade now.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  Central African Republic  |  digital identity  |  GenKey  |  voter registration