Census preparations made in Central African Republic

9/10/2010 09:20:21 AM

BANGUI – Teams from the Central African Republic's electoral commission have begun deploying throughout the country to prepare for a census that will begin on September 22, the organisation announced Friday.

"As I speak to you, all the commissioners from the CEI are deployed in the districts of our country. This is the beginning of operations to carry out an electoral census ... planned for September 22 to October 10," Joseph Binguimale, the head of the commission, told AFP.

Binguimale did not say how many commissioners there were, but said their job was to train enough census agents in the coming week, choosing people who knew how to read and write in the deeply poor landlocked nation.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were due in the CAR this year, but have been put off until January 23, 2011, after two postponements and political differences among parties to accords aimed at ending years of conflict and insurgency.

The opposition to President Francois Bozize's regime called for a complete census, rather than the mere revision of electoral rolls carried out in April by the CEI on the basis of a census in 2005, when Bozize was elected head of state after taking power in a coup two years earlier.

Candidates in the presidential and legislative elections are due to submit their files to the CEI between October 10 and November 8.