CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Referendum held, constitutional court members appointed

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BANGUI, 6 Dec 2004 (IRIN) - Citizens of the Central African Republic (CAR) went to the polls on Sunday to vote for a post-transition constitution, a day after President Francois Bozize appointed members of the country's Transitional Constitutional Court.

Results of the referendum, in which 1.5 million voters took part, will be known in a week.

The chairman of the Mixed Independent Electoral Commission, known as the CEMI, Jean Wilibiro Sacko, told IRIN that voting went late into Sunday as some of the polling centres had opened late. The centres were meant to have officially been open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The referendum ended with some residents complaining of a lack of adequate sensitisation about the elections.

"I'm very unhappy - I didn't vote," Valerie Kombo, 24, a resident of the 5th District in the capital, Bangui, told IRIN on Monday. "They could have informed us that the polls would run from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m."

Another issue of concern during the polls was illiteracy. Illiterate voters said they should have been shown samples of the ballot papers ahead of the vote.

"We acknowledge this deficiency," Remie Sakanga, a reporter of the electoral commission, said.

Despite these difficulties, he said, more than 80 percent of voters in the 5th District voted "yes" for the constitution.

Meanwhile, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Friday that Bozize, in a presidential decree, had appointed Marcel Malonga, a magistrate and former minister in charge of territorial administration, as chairman of the nine-member Transitional Constitutional Court. The court will be in charge of settling electoral disputes and announcing election results.

The other members of the court are magistrates Simon-Narcisse Bozanga, Joseph Bindoumi and Brigitte Balepou; lawyers Marie-Edith Douzima, Paul Yakola and Augustin Kombezo; political science professor Bernard Voyemakoua; and former Justice Minister Hyacinthe Wodobode.

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