A high turnout appeared assured Sunday in Central African Republic general elections following two years of military rule, said an election official in the capital Bangui. By late afternoon, when many polling stations had already closed, voters were still lining up to cast their ballot at the stations that were open, said Rene Sakanga, the rapporteur of the country's independent electoral commission. "People seem to have responded to our appeal to come out and vote", Sakanga told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone. Voters had queued up to vote before dawn, she said. The elections in the landlocked and very poor country were the first since former army general Francois Bozize overthrew civilian leader Ange-Felix Patasse with the help of mercenaries from neighbouring Chad in 2003. More than 4,000 polling stations had been set up for the 1.5 million registered voters in the sparsely populated nation of 4 million. Central African Republic has been troubled by political instability since independence from France in 1960. Initial repots indicated no irregularities or violent incidents during polling. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, fewer than 300 independent observers were monitoring the elections. --More 2350 Local Time 2050 GMT
