{"id":22193,"date":"2015-12-30T01:11:50","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T01:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/voting-due-to-begin-in-car-elections\/"},"modified":"2015-12-30T01:11:42","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T01:11:42","slug":"voting-due-to-begin-in-car-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/voting-due-to-begin-in-car-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting due to begin in CAR elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Polls are due to open in the Central African Republic in delayed presidential and parliamentary elections aimed at restoring stable government after years of turmoil.}<\/p>\n

Thirty candidates are vying to replace interim leader Catherine Samba-Panza.<\/p>\n

UN peacekeepers hope to stop a repeat of the violence three weeks ago during a referendum on a new constitution.<\/p>\n

The CAR has been torn by sectarian violence since the Muslim Seleka alliance seized power in March 2013.<\/p>\n

Will elections end the fighting in CAR?<\/p>\n

A band of mostly Christian militias, called the anti-Balaka, then took up arms against the Seleka.<\/p>\n

In January 2014, a transitional government was formed but elections have been postponed four times since February 2015 due to insecurity and logistical challenges.<\/p>\n

Three candidates are considered frontrunners for the presidency.<\/p>\n

Two of them – Martin Ziguele and Anicet Dologuele – were prime ministers under late President Ange-Felix Patasse. The third, Karim Meckassoua, is a Muslim who served as a minister under President Francois Bozize until he was ousted in 2013 by Seleka rebels.<\/p>\n

Observers say a second round is likely and expect it to be held by the end of January.<\/p>\n

Elections are also taking place for the 105-seat National Assembly.<\/p>\n

After seizing power, the Seleka rebels installed Michel Djotodia as the first Muslim leader of the majority Christian country.<\/p>\n

But under pressure from regional leaders and former colonial power France, Mr Djotodia stood down and was succeeded by Ms Samba-Panza.<\/p>\n

Mr Djotodia and Mr Bozize are both in exile and face UN and US sanctions over violence in the country.<\/p>\n

Polls are due to open at 07:00 GMT.<\/p>\n

\"It<\/figure>\n

Source:BBC:[Voting due to begin in CAR elections->http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-35196833]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Polls are due to open in the Central African Republic in delayed presidential and parliamentary elections aimed at restoring stable government after years of turmoil.} Thirty candidates are vying to replace interim leader Catherine Samba-Panza. UN peacekeepers hope to stop a repeat of the violence three weeks ago during a referendum on a new constitution. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071175,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22193.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22193.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22193.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22193.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22193.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22193.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22193"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22193"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}