Faustin-Archange Touadera, outgoing president of the Central African Republic (CAR), has won the absolute majority in the first round of the presidential election, according to provisional results announced on Monday.

The National Elections Authority (ANE), the electoral body of the CAR, which announced the results, said Touadera garnered 346,687 votes, or 53.92 per cent of all votes cast.

The voter turnout was 76.31 per cent.

The Constitutional Court is expected to  proclaim the final results on Jan. 19.

Touadera’s main competitor, former Prime Minister Anicet-Georges Dologuele, came in second with 21.01 per cent of all votes cast, according to the ANE.

On Dec. 29, the Democratic Opposition Coalition 2020 (COD-2020), a platform of opposition parties of the CAR, called for the cancellation and rerun of presidential and legislative elections.

The opposition cited low voter turnout in provinces under threat from armed rebels and electoral irregularities linked to insecurity as the reasons that prompted it to call for a “concertation of the active stakeholders of the nation before holding the new elections.”

Since mid-December, major armed groups of the CAR have mobilised to launch an offensive against the government.

The new alliance, known as the Coalition of Patriots for Change, multiplied the attacks and vowed to “march on Bangui”, the capital.

The CAR government accused Francois Bozize, a former head of state whose presidential candidature was invalidated, of having organised the attacks with the rebels for “an attempted coup.”

On Monday afternoon, before the provisional results were announced by the ANE, the Bangui prosecutor’s office declared that it had opened a judicial investigation against Bozize on his support for the rebellion.

The polls on Dec. 27 took place in relative calm with the presence of the United Nations (UN) force (MINUSCA) across the country, but the rebel offensive continued.

On Sunday, the rebels invaded the town of Bangassou.

A day earlier, the rebels had attacked Damara before they were repelled by government forces and UN peacekeepers.

Touadera has a house and a farm in Damara, located about 70 kilometers north of Bangui.

In a statement released on Sunday, MINUSCA said it held armed groups and Bozize “responsible” for the attacks over the weekend, which took place “in a context of electoral disruption.” (Xinhua/NAN)

The Libyan navy said on Monday that it rescued 82 illegal immigrants off the coast of Khoms city, some 120 km east of the capital Tripoli.

The Libyan navy disclosed82 illegal immigrants rescued off Libyan coast – Navy this in a statement.

“A rubber boat was successfully rescued with 82 migrants on board off the coast of Khoms city after a distress call was received by the Libyan Search and Rescue team,” the navy said.

The rescued migrants, including eight women and 39 children, were taken to Tripoli’s naval base, provided with humanitarian and medical assistance, and handed over to the anti-illegal immigration department, the statement noted.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), however, has repeatedly said Libya is not a safe port for disembarkation of rescued migrants.

Libya has been mired in chaos since the ouster and killing of its former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, making the North African country a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants who intend to cross the Mediterranean Sea toward Europe.

Thousands of illegal immigrants, who were either rescued at sea or arrested by the authorities, remain detained in overcrowded detention centers in Libya, despite repeated international calls to close them. (Xinhua/NAN)

A dialysis patient is the first person in the world to receive the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine outside a clinical trial.

Brian Pinker, 82, received the jab at Oxford University hospital in Oxford at 7:30 am (0730 GMT), according to Britain’s National Health Service.

Pinker, who is from Oxford, said he was proud to be receiving the jab in his home city, which is 82 kilometres north of London.

“I am so pleased to be getting the COVID-19 vaccine today and I’m really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford,” he said.

“The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”

It comes after the vaccine was approved first by Britain’s regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), for emergency usage on Dec. 30.

Britain began its mass vaccination programme in early December with the Pfizer/BioNTech injection. (dpa/NAN)