Pointe-Noire, October 1st of 2031.

Following the ratification of the CAF Constitution, known as the “Golden Constitution of 2031”, the newly-founded federation had a lot to go through; with its 120 provinces and an immense bureaucratic apparatus, the elections had to go through a very long process of preparation in order to ensure that there was no fraud, along with no voter coercion, especially in fragile areas with little infrastructure, such as the former Central African Republic and the states which composed it. Therefore, while the voting period itself is going from Oct 1st of 2031 to Oct 30th, a lot of preparations had been ongoing ever since the creation of the constitution, which was remarked for being “incredibly fast”.

The Political Scenery

As a brand-new nation, with many of the previous political alignments still being regionally based, we get the complete transformation of the political scenery in the federation, and as such, there needs to be a gradual transformation and reviewing of each political scenery in each of the nations which compose the federation; there had been a complete rebranding of most political parties, if not all of them; their ideological grounds had also to be completely transformed, in order to gather the attention of a wider public. This complicated state of affairs in the nascent federation proved to be the first challenge it had to resolve after “leaving the crib” so to speak.

Angola

In Angola, the Movimento pela Libertação de Angola, or the Movement for the Liberation of Angola, with its base of social democracy and its stance as a center-left to left-wing party, maintained its political alignment, moving towards a moderately populist stance, as the Movimento para o Socialismo e Liberdade dos Povos Centroafricanos or the Movement for Socialism and Liberty of the Central African Peoples, shortened to MSL for most; led by Augusto Lourenço Dantas. UNITA, the União Nacional Para a Independência Total de Angola, or the National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola, went from an Angolan nationalist and right-wing party to a dedicated regionalist party.

This meant that in general, the party was focused on bringing a bigger representativity to Angolan rights in the federation and provide it with further investments and funds, along with a higher representation on the NAF. It also changed its name to the Partido Nacional Para Representatividade Angolana or the National Party for Angolan Representativity, the NPAR, under André Colosso.

To conclude the major parties of Angola, Frente Nacional para Libertação de Angola, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola, the FNLA, adopted a more centrist doctrine, incorporating other minor Angolan parties, including the Democratic Renewal Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the New Democracy Electoral Union, bolstering the small participation of the FNLA into a larger base; the FNLA rebranded itself as the Partido para a União dos Povos da África Central or the Party for the Union of Central African Peoples, the UCAP, which is presided by Pedro José Palmas.

To conclude the list of Angolan parties, the Social Democratic Party, the Social Renewal Party, the Angolan Democratic Forum and the Angolan National Democratic Party merged together into a single party, whose alignment is center-left with a small, albeit vocal, right-wing faction, which experts are quick to predict will split off in the coming years, known as the Partido Popular Social Democrata or the Popular Social Democratic Party, the PSDP, which is led by a charismatic Angolan politician, named Estevão Prado de Mello.

The DRC

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is certainly the bedrock of Central African democracy; while a remarkably failed state in 2020, it grew into the de facto leader of the federation by 2030; and with it the importance of the nation, so comes the importance of its political parties, which are capable of exercising tremendous influence.

The first, and most importance of all of them, is the Democratic Alliance; being a center-right party, it is moderate and follows mostly the principles of federalism and the free-market, along with the establishment of a firm democracy with the constitution as its bedrock. Katumbi continues to lead the party, although his time as a president is over, he still holds considerable influence; as the party renames itself from the Democratic Alliance to the Democratic Alliance of Central Africa, or the DACA.

Joseph Kabila, while an older politician at this point, still holds considerable influence in Congolese politics and, as a contrast to the Congolese DA, he has formed the Common Front for the Central African People, or the CFCAP, a left-wing party rooted in the stabilization and focus in Francophone countries, along with the nationalization of resources and a strong, protectionist economy.

The MLC, or the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo, rebranded itself as a right-wing, Christian democratic party with a strong Congolese regionalist identity, known as the Movement for the Centralization of the Federation, the MCF, which, as the name and the background of the party implies, desires a centralization of the federation in a Congo-centric visage, with Francophone policies and a bigger focus on the Congolese parties as a whole.

The Republic of the Congo

In the Republic of the Congo, the PCT, Parti Congolais du Travail or the Congolese Party of Labor, focused on a social democratic base with strong pro-labor policies and a big centralization of the federation, arguing that a small government will be unable to develop the federation. The PCT rebranded itself as the Central African Party of Labor, or the Parti Centreafricaine du Travail, CAPL, led by Ignace Bukasa.

The MCDDI, or the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development, is another big party that got rebranded and focused a lot on cooperating with DACA, it held similar views, including a free-market policy and the formation of a strong federation; it renamed itself the Movement for Democracy and Integral Development, the MDDI in French. It is led by Pierre Kabanga.

The final party in the Congo to get a big transformation was the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy, which kept its name, but merged with the Action Movement for Renewal and the Rally for Democracy and Social Progress; the PAUSD is led by Diombelayi Kabendi and is essentially a center-left party with a focus on social democracy and the bolstering of worker’s rights.

Gabon

The Gabonese Democratic Party is a center-right party which dominated Gabon until the coup d’état by Commander David Marcos, after the coup, it moderately fell in popularity and is now wanting a bigger relevancy within Gabon itself, which is why it maintained its name as the GDP. Its main characteristics are its strong regionalist tendencies and the focus it has in securing funding from the federal government to Gabon; political experts remark that this is probably the biggest focus of the party, which is strongly rooted in Gabon itself. It is led by Gerard-Patrick Ozimo.

The Democrats and the Heritage and Modernity Rally merged together into the Party for Democracy, Liberty and Equality of Central Africa, or in French, the Parti pour la Démocratie, Liberte et Egalité de la Áfrique Centrale, the PDLEAC; it contains a centrist ideology focused on the promotion of equal rights between all members of the federation and large, well-funded policies such as a high-quality universal healthcare policy and a small military; it is led by Claude Mabicka.

Equatorial Guinea

While Equatorial Guinea may have entered the Central African federation, its sole political party sure isn’t interested in fragmenting itself. Under the stern rule of the extremely old Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea maintained its name, having little interests in participating in the federation as a political entity, it simply wanted more representativity in Eq. Guinea and a larger funding, especially for “infrastructure” projects in its economy.

Along with it, a small dedicated party started to gain some traction, the Movement for Freedom and Human Rights, the MFHR, dedicated to center-left policies, it has been proving itself a solid alternative to the DPEG, but some experts say that it’ll be hard to topple the incumbent party.

São Tomé and Principe

The small islands which constituted the Central African Federation were a proud symbol of democracy and stability in the sea of autocracy and corruption which composed most of the member states of the CAF; the MLSTP/PSD, the leading party of the nation, is a democratic socialist, center-left party which really wanted to participate in the CAF as a whole through democratic principles. It refurbished itself as the Social Democratic Party of Central Africa, or the SDPAC, headed by João Lourenço Marcos de Sousa.

Patrice Trovoada remained the president of the Independent Democratic Action and even retained its name, as the IDA, incorporating into it the pan-African principles of DACA, and holding a very similar line of thought to Congolese Katumbism; it supports liberalism and federalism, with a strong center-right tendency.

Central African Republic

In the beautiful nation of the Central African Republic, which was in a state of civil war for a long period of time before the unification, there’s a need for some reorganization, expansion and reconfiguration of the political scenery. Many of the former Séleka members went to make their own political parties, many of which failed, some of which remained, most importantly, there is the ‘To Prosperity’ coalition, composed of the Union for Democracy and Freedom, the Movement for the Unification of Africa and the Party for Development, Democracy and Diplomacy, the UDF-MUA-PDDD coalition. The coalition is composed of a center-left alignment with a strong focus on developing the more impoverished parts of the federation – such as the CAR – and diplomatically align the CAF towards other pan-African nations, such as Mozambique and the EAF.

François Bozizé’s party, Kwa na Kwa, perished after the unification, due to the lack of interest, essentially, although the Union for Central African Renewal (UCAR) became important on a national level, led by François Leroy Ngrébada; it focused on a strong alliance – and then a merge – with the MLPC, and mostly competes with the National Union for Democracy and Progress, or NUDP, which by itself is a strong contender for a few chairs, and is mostly allied with the ‘To Prosperity’ coalition.

To conclude the Central African political scenery, we observe that the Anti-Balaka forces have merged together, and transformed from armed struggle to an official political struggle under the Party for Christians in Central Africa, or the PCCA, an extremely conservative right-wing party which is focused, unsurprisingly for the anti-balaka background, in expelling the Muslims from the Central African Federation and passing harsh, well-built legislation against Islam in Africa as a whole.

Cameroon/Bamum

In Cameroon, following integration and Paul Biya’s exceedingly old age at 97, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement fractured into a plethora of smaller political parties, with little chance of winning by themselves; it was only with the merge between the Cameroon People’s Liberation Front – a left-wing splinter from CPMD – and the Social Democratic Front that the Socialist Front of Central Africa, the SFCA, took any real shape.

Other than the SFCA, we have a smaller party resulting from the merge of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, the Democratic Union of Cameroon and Cameroonian Party of Democrats, the Peoples Democratic Union of Central Africa, or the PDUCA, a centrist party focused on inter-governmental cooperation and the development of a prosperous federation with devolved powers towards the states themselves; they are not against state intervention, and believe that a moderate protectionist policy could bring the CAF towards economic autonomy.

Chad

To conclude on our exhausting list of politics and in turn, politicians, we turn to Chad. In it, the nation is mostly focused on the Patriotic Salvation Movement, a right-wing nationalist government which turned hard regionalist, focused on the development of Chad and in securing funds from the federation to develop it according to their own plans; they have, as a whole, little interest in participating, economically or politically, in the federation in the long-run.

In contrast to the PSM, the National Union for Democracy and Renewal, alongside the National Rally for Democracy in Chad and the Federation, Action for the Republic, have merged together into the Party for the Federation, or PF, dedicated to develop a strong federal bond with free-market policies; their main leader, Ahmat Bawoyeu, is focused on cooperating with other parties for the formation of a strong military, with modernized equipment, and warm relations with both the EAF and France.

The General Elections – The Legislative

After completing our tour of the landscape of the Central African Federation, we turn towards the election itself. Composed of an entire month of campaigning and balloting, the vote count is done by the Electoral Commission of the CAF, a well-funded, well-monitored agency with a legal framework against voting fraud. The main focus had been on avoiding major tensions between the different political groups and foster democracy in the first legal election in the entire Federation.

To begin with, many of the parties were supported all over; they had to leave their traditional niches in order to compete for their places in the National Assembly, which led to some confusion and some lack of trust; for instance, the MSL, led by Augusto L. Dantas, had to compete in some provinces in the former CAR in order to attain a good amount of seats, along with meeting with SDPAC and the PF for some results, this encouraged different exchanges between languages and political cultures – some of which suffered clashes.

These clashes mostly occurred as a lot of parties had to mix between their political groups in order to attain a chance at winning a majority in the National Assembly, while some other parties such as the ones originating in Eq. Guinea, representativity was lacking, and the DPEG maintained a stone-cold grip on the provinces of the former nation.

As such, the political scene started to melt and merge into different coalitions, and the most notable coalitions, which had a major influence on the manner of which the government would act with the President, was the following:

On the left-wing, the ‘Common Front for Central Africa’ was created, with a coalition between SDPAC-MSL-SFCA-CFCAP-PSDP-CAPL; essentially the major left-wing parties in Central Africa. On the center, the ‘National Unity Alliance’ was created between the MFHR-PF-PDUCA-UDF-MUA-PDDD. The center-right coalition was more of a small mess, called the ‘Union of Central African Democrats’, composed of the UCAR-DACA-IDA-PDLEAC-UCAP; and to conclude, there was also the existence of a small far-right coalition with the PCCA-MLC. The smaller, regionalist parties weren’t inclined to join any coalition, having a bigger interest in campaigning for their own rights and their own people with little participation in the government as a whole.

The Gubernatorial

The gubernatorial elections were confusing at times, but the use of left-wing rhetoric, especially of the populist variety, really helped get the bigger left-wing parties some focus, but the main parties to receive a lot of gubernatorial positions were the center-left and the center-right parties, moderate candidates with a focus on Katumbism and moderate economic policies, maintaining the soft course of economic development that had been kept in the DRC.

The National Assembly and the Senate

In the Assembly, we see a lot of different groups compete for the big pie, which will allow them to articulate in a more effective manner. The NAF has a total of 480 representatives, so a lot of chairs are open for competition and as such, a lot of political tension is sure to emanate. Contrary to the gubernatorial elections, where parties were essentially more of a “free-for-all” rather than a focused attempt to gain chairs based on a collective effort, the National Assembly had laser precision focus at times, with politicians focusing on exact chairs and managing to convince their way to representation.

In the National Assembly, we can see that the elected government, no matter their alignment, will have to pass comprehensive packages of political and economic reform that please all sides of the political spectrum; while the regionalists have a small amount of seats, they are not to be ignored, and will certainly need to be placated from time to time, until the development of a joint Central African identity rather than a regional one, is developed in the Federation; which can take some time. In the Senate, however, things are slightly different, as to be seen below:

The Senate essentially went extremely similar to the gubernatorial elections, with minor differences in some aspects of the composition in the centrist and right-wing coalitions.

The Presidential Elections

The most awaited moment of any election is the presidential election, where the face of an entire nation is shown, its representative chosen by an entire population and an exhibition of popular will. The first election was a complex affair, with dozens of politicians waiting to try their hands out on the podium, but the inner-party competition soon gave way to a more adaptable coalition model, where politicians formed endorsed fronts with a few select candidates.

That was the case of many of the parties; to begin with, we have Émilien Malepa (SFCA) and Ignace Bukasa (CAPL) in a President/Vice-President ticket specifically. They ran with a strong socialist platform, including wealth redistribution, a major focus on protectionist policies with strong state-owned enterprises, and a comprehensive labor law reform, with a strong pro-worker legislation. Alongside them, also came Paulo Martins Andrada (MSL) and Estevão Prado de Melo (PSPD), which conceded halfway through to provide their sound endorsement to the SFCA-CAPL ticket.

The other members of the coalition did not provide candidates, preferring to focus on their support on the SFCA-CAPL ticket; while in the center coalition, MFHR provided a President and a Vice-President ticket, with Teodoro Nguema and Francisco Pascual; while PF-PDUCA launched a joint ticket, with Ahmat Bawoyeu (PF) as President and Theo Kimbangu (PDUCA) as its Vice-President; while the MFHR party focused on a strong anti-corruption platform, including the prosecution of long-running criminals and autocrats in the federation, the PF-PDUCA party focused on public housing and welfare, as well as a focus on fostering good relations with all the states. The remaining parties of the Center coalition essentially focused on endorsing these candidates.

There was also Paul Kayemba (DACA) and Pedro José Palmas (UCAP), a strong ticket; DACA had an ace up its sleeve, ex-president of the DRC, Moïse Katumbi, which was more than eager to provide a resounding endorsement to the Kayemba-Palmas ticket; they ran a moderate platform, with a focus on the “five-points campaign” which were, essentially, a focus on: 1) fostering a domestic Central African industry, 2) fostering a prosperous diplomatic relationship with France, the EAF and Mozambique, 3) fostering a strong anti-corruption legislation capable of tackling the immense administration of the CAF, 4) fostering a good relation with all states by providing stable, major legislation which distributes the power evenly between all the 120 states of the federation and finally, 5) fostering a stable state with a focus on economic growth and development.

The final contender was Patrice Meba’a of the PCCA, along with Alfons Dikobè, who ran a strong campaign in favor of the rights of Christians, and focused a lot on populist tactics, such as his bold declaration that he would provide, on the first day, legislation against Muslims in Central Africa and provide a safety net for Christians all over, with a quasi-welfare state doctrine.

The 1st Round

During the first electoral round, the vote was pretty split among the candidates, with a few outstanding candidates, although none of them could break the 51% threshold for a first-round victory; it should also be mentioned that the total voter turnout was at 73%, with a total of 75,340,400 voters.

As it can be seen, the vote was essentially split towards a more moderate focus with the DACA-UCAP nomination, although a lot of voters were also interested in the leftist policies of SFC-CAPL, which could provide a pivot to the left in the coming years, if the right-wing coalitions are unable to provide any satisfactory policies.

The 2nd Round

In the 2nd round, things were more focused on the endorsements, all of the politicians wanted as many endorsements as they could from each other; the impasse led to Nguema and Pascual to drop out of the race, endorsing a DACA-UCAP race while PF-PDUCA were split, with the parties themselves lukewarmly endorsing some the SFC-CAPL ticket, which some experts point that is, essentially, cost them the race, as seen below:

The endorsements had proven themselves valuable, and the DACA-UCAP ticket had succeeded; a moderate path for the Central African Federation, it would certainly prove itself to be useful. While energies were at an all-time high, there were manifestations of support in Pointe-Noire, indicating a favorable view of the candidates; there were also many pro-DACA manifestations in Kinshasa and other Congolese cities and territories, such as in Kivu.

The Speech

The new President of the Federation, the first one in its history, stepped up on the Presidential Palace in Pointe-Noire in order to do his speech. He looked at the population in a humble manner, with his vice-president by his side, who was responsible for really riling up the supporters of DACA, who screamed endlessly at times.

“My people, the Central African people, we have achieved a great victory today; we have achieved a path which will put the Central African Federation on the spotlight as one of the greatest nations in African history, maybe the greatest in its history. We are going to be achieving a strong democracy, a caring state, an economic machine so great and vast, that no one will stop us; employment will soar, our currency will value, our exports increase and our imports decrease – for we shall have everything we need right here, inside our nation, inside our home. Unity is not only necessary in this nascent great power, it is imperative; it’s why I ask all of you to participate in community outreach campaigns, to aid your Angolan neighbor, your Bamum neighbor, your Chadian friend, collaborate, work together as one – we are one, we are the Central Africans. We united because of a dream, of an immense dream of democracy; its time to make that dream a reality!”