Central African Republic presidentFaustin Archange Touadera said Saturday he will stand for a third term in December’s elections.”To the wishes of the United Hearts Movement (MCU) for me to invest myself as a candidate in the December 2025 presidential elections I clearly respond yes,” Touadera, 68, said to a gathering of party members in the capital Bangui.Touadera was first elected head of state in 2016 after French military intervention and the subsequent deployment of UN peacekeepers ended a bloody civil war that flared along sectarian lines. He won re-election in 2020 in a poll marked by unrest and opposition allegations of fraud.His supporters say he is a peacebuilder who helped restore security in a large part of the country, while opponents accuse him of intending to remain president for life after a new constitution approved in a 2023 referendum authorised him to seek a third mandate.The Republican Bloc for the Defence of the Constitution of March 2016 (BRDC), a platform of political parties and civil society associations, has said it will only participate in elections if he opens political dialogue with the opposition. Despite the opposition’s repeated requests and President Touadera’s initial approval for such a dialogue, no date has been set.Before a crowd of several thousand supporters wearing caps, scarves, and t-shirts in his party’s blue and white colours, Touadera  blasted the opposition as “radical,” “incompetent” and “corrupt.”The December elections, initially scheduled to renew presidential and lawmakers’ mandates, is now set to be combined with municipal elections, postponed several times over the past year amid a lack of funding and a reliable electoral list.The Central African Republic has experienced regular conflict since independence from France in 1960.Although the government reached a peace process with 14 rebel groups in 2019, several armed groups have continued to fight and maintain their authority over parts of the country.Violence has decreased  but the situation remains volatile, notably in the country’s east which border the two Sudans.
