Voters in the Central African Republic overwhelmingly approved a new draft constitution that would allow Faustin-Archange Touadera to seek a third term as president.
Voters cast 95.27% of their ballots in favour and 4.73% against, with a turnout of 61.10% in the July 30 referendum, National Election Authority president Mathias Morouba said on Monday.
The vote was boycotted by the main opposition parties and civil society organisations, as well as by armed rebel groups.
Touadera's rivals say he wants to remain "president for life" – under the increasingly visible protection of private Russian mercenary group Wagner, which first deployed to the CAR in 2018.
In 2020 Touadera won a second five-year term, after a vote interrupted by several incursions by armed rebel groups. He also had to overcome allegations of fraud.
The new constitution would extend the presidential mandate from five to seven years and abolish the two-term limit.
These "provisional" results must be ratified by the constitutional court, which is scheduled to publish the definitive outcome on August 27.
