Campaigning kicked off Saturday in the Central African Republic, with the unstable former French colony's voters set to cast their ballots in a quadruple whammy of elections on December 28.

Besides national, regional and municipal lawmakers, Centrafricans are set to pick their president, with incumbent Faustin-Archange Touadera in pole position out of a seven-strong field after modifying the constitution to allow him to seek a third term.

Thousands of supporters packed into a 20,000-seater stadium in the capital Bangui on Saturday to listen to Touadera, accused by the opposition of wishing to cling on as president-for-life in one of the world's poorest countries.

In his speech, Touadera, who was first elected in 2016 in the middle of a bloody civil war, styled himself as a defender of t

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