List of heads of state of the Central African Republic

This article lists the heads of state of the Central African Republic. There have been seven heads of state of the Central African Republic and the Central African Empire since independence was obtained from France on 13 August 1960. This list includes not only those persons who were sworn into office as President of the Central African Republic but also those who served as de facto heads of state.

Jean-Bédel Bokassa served as a de facto head of state (and also reigned as emperor from 1976 to 1979), while David Dacko (who served as de facto head of state from 1979 to 1981), André Kolingba, Ange-Félix Patassé, and François Bozizé were elected into office at some point during their tenure. To date, Kolingba is the only former head of state of the Central African Republic to voluntarily step down from the office through a democratic process, following the 1993 general election.

The current president of the Central African Republic is Faustin-Archange Touadéra, since 30 March 2016.<ref>"Central African Republic's president vows peace, reforms at inauguration", Reuters, 30 March 2016.</ref>

Succession

Before the adoption of the 2023 constitution, the president of the National Assembly was the constitutional successor of the president in the event of a vacancy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Term

Before the adoption of the 2023 constitution,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> there was a two-term limit for the president in the Constitution of the Central African Republic. The term limit was not met by any president.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The constitution of 2023 removed term-limits and extended the presidential term from five years to seven years.

List of officeholders

Political parties

Other affiliations

Template:Abbr	Portrait	Name Template:Small	Elected	Term of office			Political affiliation		Notes
				Took office	Left office	Time in office
Central African Republic (1960–1976)
—		David Dacko Template:Small	—	14 August 1960<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>	12 December 1960Template:Ref label	Template:Age in years and days	rowspan="2" style="background:Template:Party color" |	MESAN	Dacko served as president of the government from 1 May 1959<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> until the country declared its independence on 13 August 1960.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
1		David Dacko Template:Small	1964	12 December 1960	1 January 1966<ref name="Titleyp28">Template:Harvnb</ref>
2		Jean-Bédel Bokassa Template:Small	—	1 January 1966Template:Ref label	4 December 1976	Template:Age in years and days	style="background:Template:Party color" |	Military	Bokassa seized power from Dacko in a successful coup d'état. He changed his name to Salah Eddine Ahmed Bokassa after converting to Islam on 20 October 1976.<ref name="Kalckpxxxiv">Template:Harvnb</ref>
								MESANTemplate:Ref label
Central African Empire (1976–1979)
1		Bokassa I Template:Small	—	4 December 1976Template:Ref label	21 September 1979<ref name="Kalckp199">Template:Harvnb</ref>	Template:Age in years and days	style="background:Template:Party color" |	MESAN	Bokassa spent approximately US$20 million—one third of the country's annual budget—on his coronation ceremony on 4 December 1977.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
Central African Republic (1979–present)
3		David Dacko Template:Small	1981	21 September 1979Template:Ref label	1 September 1981<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>	Template:Age in years and days	style="background:Template:Party color" |	MESAN	This was Dacko's second time as president of the Central African Republic. In February 1980, Dacko established the Central African Democratic Union (UDC) as the country's only political party.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
							style="background:Template:Party color" |	UDC
—		André Kolingba Template:Small	—	1 September 1981Template:Ref label	21 September 1985Template:Ref label	Template:Age in years and days	rowspan="2" style="background:Template:Party color" |	Military	Kolingba seized power from Dacko in a successful coup d'état. Ange-Félix Patassé, with the assistance of François Bozizé, launched an unsuccessful coup d'état against the Kolingba government on 3 March 1982.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
—		André Kolingba Template:Small		21 September 1985	21 November 1986		Kolingba established the Central African Democratic Rally (RDC) as the country's only party in May 1986.<ref name="Kalckp113">Template:Harvnb</ref>
								rowspan="2" style="background:Template:Party color" |	RDC
4		André Kolingba Template:Small	1986Template:Ref label	21 November 1986	22 October 1993
5		Ange-Félix Patassé Template:Small	1993Template:Ref label 1999	22 October 1993<ref>Template:Citation</ref>	15 March 2003	Template:Age in years and days	style="background:Template:Party color" |	MLPC	Bozizé launched an unsuccessful coup d'état against the Patassé government on 28 May 2001.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
6		François Bozizé Template:Small	2005 2011	15 March 2003Template:Ref label<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>	24 March 2013	Template:Age in years and days	style="background:Template:Party color" |	Military	Bozizé seized power from Patassé in a successful coup d'état. Shortly after, he appointed Abel Goumba as prime minister. Goumba had served as acting prime minister in 1959, before being overthrown by Dacko.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
							style="background:Template:Party color" |	Independent
7		Michel Djotodia Template:Small	—	24 March 2013Template:Ref label	18 August 2013	Template:Age in years and days	rowspan="2" style="background:Template:Party color" |	Military	Djotodia was the leader of the Séléka rebel coalition in the ongoing civil war.
—		Michel Djotodia Template:Small		18 August 2013	10 January 2014Template:Ref label
—		Alexandre-Ferdinand Nguendet Template:Small	—	10 January 2014	23 January 2014	Template:Age in years and days		RPR	Nguendet succeeded Djotodia after his resignation due to the continued conflict.
—		Catherine Samba-Panza Template:Small	—	23 January 2014	30 March 2016	Template:Age in years and days	style="background:Template:Party color" |	Independent	Samba-Panza became the first female head of state of the Central African Republic.
8		Faustin-Archange Touadéra Template:Small	2015–16 2020–21	30 March 2016	Incumbent	Template:Age in years and days	style="background:Template:Party color" |	Independent	Previously, Touadéra served as prime minister under Bozizé from 2008 until 2013.
							style="background:Template:Party color" |	MCU

Footnotes

• Template:Note label Dacko became the official President of the Central African Republic after defeating Abel Goumba in an internal power struggle. Dacko had support from the French government.
• Template:Note label Bokassa seized power by staging a coup d'état from 31 December 1965 until 1 January 1966. Bokassa forced Dacko to officially resign from the presidency at 03:20 WAT (02:20 UTC) on 1 January.<ref name="Titleyp28" />
• Template:Note label Bokassa staged a military coup against the Dacko government on 31 December 1965 – 1 January 1966. After becoming president, Bokassa took control of MESAN and imposed one-party rule under MESAN.
• Template:Note label Bokassa, then-president for life of the Central African Republic, instituted a new constitution at the session of the MESAN congress and declared the republic a monarchy, the Central African Empire (CAE). Bokassa became the emperor of the CAE as "Bokassa I".<ref name="Kalckpxxxiv" />
• Template:Note label By 1979, French support for Bokassa had all but eroded after the government's brutal suppression of rioting in Bangui and massacre of schoolchildren who had protested against wearing the expensive, government-required school uniforms. Dacko, who was Bokassa's personal adviser at the time, managed to leave for Paris where the French convinced him to cooperate in a coup to remove Bokassa from power and restore him to the presidency. The French successfully executed Operation Barracuda on 20–21 September 1979 and installed Dacko as president.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
• Template:Note label General Kolingba (who was also the armed forces chief of staff) overthrew Dacko from the presidency in a bloodless coup.<ref name="Kalckp113" />
• Template:Note label On 21 September 1985, Kolingba dissolved the Military Committee for National Recovery,<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> and created the positions of head of state and president.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
• Template:Note label A constitution was adopted by a referendum on 21 November 1986 and Kolingba was elected to a six-year term in office.<ref name="Kalckp199" /><ref name="Kalckp113" />
• Template:Note label The country held a multiparty presidential election on 22 August and 19 September 1993. Patassé was the candidate from the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People party and ran on the platform that he would pay the previously withheld salaries to soldiers and civil servants.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Patassé defeated Dacko, Kolingba, Bozizé and Abel Goumba to win the election.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
• Template:Note label Bozizé's second coup attempt was successful; he seized power in Bangui on 15 March 2003.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
• Template:Note label Djotodia ousted Bozizé in the 2012–13 conflict; he seized power in Bangui on 24 March 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Template:Note label Under pressure from other central African heads of state gathered for a crisis summit on the situation in CAR, Djotodia resigned in N'Djamena, Chad on 10 January 2014.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Timeline

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 id:mil     value:rgb(0.76,0.69,0.57) legend:Military
 id:mesan   value:rgb(0,0,0)          legend:MESAN
 id:bokassa value:rgb(0.9,0.78,0.1)   legend:None_(Absolute_monarch)
 id:udc     value:rgb(0.47,0.66,0.27) legend:UDC
 id:rdc     value:rgb(0.98,0.89,0.23) legend:RDC
 id:mlpc    value:rgb(0.08,0.64,0.28) legend:MLPC
 id:knk     value:rgb(0.99,0.4,0)     legend:Kwa_Na_Kwa
 id:seleka  value:rgb(0,0.5,0)        legend:Séléka
 id:rpr     value:rgb(0.39,0.58,0.93) legend:RPR
 id:mcu     value:rgb(0.04,0.45,0.78) legend:MCU

 id:gray1  value:gray(0.85)
 id:gray2  value:gray(0.95)

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1960 till:31/12/{{#expr:{{#time:Y}}+1}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1960 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1960

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bar:Dacko
bar:Bokassa
bar:Kolingba
bar:Patassé
bar:Bozizé
bar:Djotodia
bar:Nguendet
bar:Samba-Panza
bar:Touadéra

PlotData =

 width:5 align:left fontsize:9 shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar:Dacko
 from: 14/08/1960 till: 01/01/1966 color:mesan
 from: 21/09/1979 till: 01/03/1980 color:mesan
 from: 01/03/1980 till: 01/09/1981 color:udc     text:"David Dacko"
bar:Bokassa
 from: 31/12/1965 till: 01/01/1966 color:mil
 from: 01/01/1966 till: 04/12/1976 color:mesan
 from: 04/12/1976 till: 21/09/1979 color:bokassa text:"Jean-Bédel Bokassa / Bokassa I"
bar:Kolingba
 from: 01/09/1981 till: 06/02/1987 color:mil
 from: 06/02/1987 till: 22/10/1993 color:rdc     text:"André Kolingba"
bar:Patassé
 from: 22/10/1993 till: 15/03/2003 color:mlpc    text:"Ange-Félix Patassé"
bar:Bozizé
 from: 15/03/2003 till: 30/01/2005 color:mil
 from: 30/01/2005 till: 21/08/2009 color:ind
 from: 21/08/2009 till: 24/03/2013 color:knk     text:"François Bozizé"
bar:Djotodia
 from: 24/03/2013 till: 10/01/2014 color:seleka  text:"Michel Djotodia"
bar:Nguendet
 from: 10/01/2014 till: 23/01/2014 color:rpr     text:"Alexandre-Ferdinand Nguendet (acting)"
bar:Samba-Panza
 from: 23/01/2014 till: 30/03/2016 color:ind     text:"Catherine Samba-Panza"
bar:Touadéra
 from: 30/03/2016 till: 08/11/2018 color:ind
 from: 08/11/2018 till: $today     color:mcu     text:"Faustin-Archange Touadéra"

</timeline>

Latest election

Template:Main {{#section-h:2020–21 Central African general election|President}}

See also

• Politics of the Central African Republic
• History of the Central African Republic
• Emperor of Central Africa
• List of heads of government of the Central African Republic
• Vice President of the Central African Republic
• List of colonial governors of Ubangi-Shari

References

Specific

General

• Template:Citation.
• Template:Citation.
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External links

• Official Website Template:Webarchive
• Elections in the Central African Republic
• BBC News Timeline: Central African Republic