C.A.R. ex-P.M. Touadera ahead after election

Early results from the Central African Republic's presidential election show ex-Prime Minister Faustin Archange Touadera taking a surprise lead.

The BBC writes:

Thirty candidates contested the poll, which is likely to go to a run-off between the top two on 31 January. Mr Touadera was not seen as a favourite. He was prime minister in the government of ex-President Francois Bozize, ousted in 2013 by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels. Voting took place on 30 December, with UN troops guarding polling stations. Thirty candidates vied to replace interim leader Catherine Samba-Panza in the former French colony. CAR has been torn by sectarian violence since the Seleka rebels seized power in March 2013. A band of mostly Christian militias, called the anti-Balaka, then took up arms against the Seleka.

Voice of America states:

The head of an African Union observer mission, Souleymane N'diaye, said the elections were peaceful and transparent and that observers did not notice any irregularities or any fraud in the sense that anyone opened ballot boxes and threw in extra ballots. There were, however, some logistical difficulties, N'diaye said. Two-thirds of the polling stations the AU observers visited opened late. Some stations did not get any ballots for the legislative elections. Others ran out of ballots for the presidential election. Residents who had not received their voter cards were allowed to cast ballots if they could present a valid ID card or receipt for the voter card. Elections had been postponed three times because of logistical difficulties.