Central African Republic declares no financial obstacle to elections

The Central African Republic's Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) says the country has no longer financial obstacles to the organization of elections.

The country is to hold the legislative and presidential elections on Jan. 23, 2011.

"Regarding the electoral process, there's no longer a problem of cash at this moment," CEI President Joseph Binguimale said in a statement carried by local media on Tuesday.

He said the majority of the partners had honored their pledges to contribute to the election budget of 14 billion FCFA (28 million U. S. dollars).

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), CEI's main partner, had released funds to help it carry out voter registration exercise to be launched on Sept. 22, he said. The registration had been previously postponed from Sept. 1 because of financial difficulties.

Source: Xinhua