ALEXANDRA LAMARCHE
This December, citizens of the Central African Republic (CAR) will head to the polls for the first election since the country’s constitution was amended to remove presidential term limits.
With “2.3 million voters […] registered, including 749,000 new registrations,” the media is presenting the election as a sign of renewed democratic engagement.
But behind the numbers lies a much more disturbing reality: my ongoing research suggests it’s an election that seems carefully crafted to consolidate the power of a nativist regime that is redefining citizenship in order to better exclude some citizens.
Under the guise of a democratic process, my research suggests that President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s government is using repression to create an electorate composed solely of “true” Central Africans, excluding those it considers foreigners, particularly Muslims. The result is an election that will neither be free nor representative, but rather a tool of nativist exclusion.
What is nativism?
Nativism is based on a distinction between supposedly legitimate “natives” and “foreigners” perceived as a threat to national identity. These conceptions give rise to hierarchies of belonging, where certain groups are considered more legitimate members of the nation than others.
This ideology is well known beyond the African continent. In the United States, for example, nativism is reflected not only in Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies but also in the growing hostility towards migrants themselves, portrayed as cultural and economic threats.
In India, under the leadership of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, religious nativism has grown stronger, redefining national identity in Hindu terms and marginalizing minorities, particularly Muslims.
In CAR, nativism goes beyond the simple construction of hierarchies of belonging to actively serve as the ideological driver of state repression. As a political science researcher at the University of Montréal specializing in the Central African Republic, I draw on my recent field experience with Central African Muslims.
When power redefines identity
Despite nativist rhetoric, Muslims are not newcomers to CAR. Their presence in the country dates back two centuries.
While the country has long been ethnically polarized, more recently, the nativist rhetoric used by former president François Bozizé exacerbated tensions between the Christian majority and the Muslim minority in the country, playing an important role in sparking the 2013-2014 civil war.
Despite the official end of the conflict, instability persists. By continuing to portray Muslims as guests, often linked to their ancestral ties to present-day Chad or Sudan, the nativist rhetoric of Touadéra’s government delegitimizes Muslim citizenship, both in discourse and in practice, and justifies violent and administrative repression by the state.
When voting becomes a privilege
Between January and March 2025, I conducted 42 field interviews with Central African Muslims about their experiences of repression in CAR. Although their experiences vary, these interviews provided a deeper understanding of the bureaucratic obstacles and security concerns that limit and hinder Muslims’ political participation, thereby shrinking the electorate based on identity.
This exclusion is built on three mechanisms: unequal access to the national identity cards needed to register to vote, barriers to participation on election day and the exclusion of refugees, most of whom are Muslim.
Few Central African Muslims reported having been able to obtain their national identity cards easily, if at all. Many are required to provide additional documents to prove their citizenship, such as birth certificates, residence certificates and nationality certificates, and are often asked to provide their parents’ and grandparents’ documents. All say they have paid more than their Christian compatriots for the same efforts.
These payments are sometimes presented as administrative fees, while others openly refer to them as bribes. Some have even been harassed by the Central African Armed Forces (referred to as the FACA) and their Russian allies while attempting to get their documents. One woman who came to the capital, Bangui, to obtain documents for her family, said she was threatened by the FACA and told to leave the country.
For those who lost their documents when they were forcibly displaced by ongoing fighting, obtaining a card is virtually impossible. Faced with these obstacles, many give up. Others, refusing to give in, persevere despite the harassment, costs and humiliation, often without success.
Constant fear and obstacles
Another troubling practice complicates access to voting rights: the confiscation of documents by the FACA. One man recounted:
“In 2023, they arrested me and stole my documents, my birth certificate, and my identity card. They beat me and said I was not worthy of having Central African documents.”
Even among those who will manage to vote, fear prevails.
During the 2020-2021 elections, several Muslims say they were forced to vote for Touadéra. One woman recalls:
“The FACA followed me to the voting booth and showed me his name on the ballot. I knew it was illegal, but I was too scared to say no.”
Central African refugees who fled during or since the civil war no longer have the right to vote. Although they participated in the first post-war elections, the government has left them out ever since, despite repeated calls from the United Nations for their inclusion.
“We are excluded because of the mentality that Muslims are not Central Africans,” explains one Central African refugee.
A divisive vote
These obstacles and restrictions on the right to vote are clear indicators of systemic marginalization. They highlight that when post-civil war elections are held in nativist regimes, they are not signs of progress, but rather instruments used to legitimize exclusion and consolidate power among those considered to be “true” citizens.
The exclusion of Muslims is not a response to the persistent unrest in the country, but rather a strategy aimed at restricting access to political life and redefining the boundaries of citizenship.
With Dec. 28 elections approaching in CAR, this dynamic illustrates how nativist regimes can use elections to decide who belongs — and who is excluded — from the nation.
This case is not unique to the history of the Central African Republic: it reflects a global trend in which populism, nationalism and identity politics are redefining the borders of belonging. In CAR, as in the United States, Europe, and India, nativist regimes can turn elections into weapons of exclusion.
