a speech in the city of Mobaye on January 15, which was carried on state radio, accusing them of "nothing more or less than sorcery" and "madness, bad faith, coupled with a dose of misinformation". He further said that, in contrast to them, his policy "does not aim at destroying the country, it is not based on violence, lies, betrayal, manipulation or strikes". Amidst this tension and controversy, the seven excluded candidates, along with the originally accepted candidates Kolingba and Goumba, called for the mediation of Gabonese president Omar Bongo. On January 22, the matter was effectively resolved through the signing by Bozizé and his rivals of an agreement in Libreville, which allowed all the candidates except Patassé to participate and brought the total number of candidates to 11. According to the agreement, Patassé would remain barred because he was the subject of judicial proceedings. The date of the election was also delayed to March 13, and it was agreed that the constitutional court would not be dissolved, but that it would lose powers regarding the election, which would instead go to CEMI. Subsequently, although Patassé rejected the agreement—saying that he had not authorized Luc Apollinaire Dondon, the first vice-president of the MLPC, to sign it—the MLPC announced on January 26 that it would support the candidacy of Ziguélé, who had previously been running as an independent. An official list of candidates, including 11 of them and excluding only Patassé, was published by the election commission on January 26, following the agreement. Elections were also held to fill the 105 seats of the national assembly, whose members will serve five-year terms. Initially, 261 of 970 candidates were barred from running by the electoral commission on January 10, but on January 21 a court ruling permitted 219 of the 261 to run, bringing the number of candidates to 928. Bozizé's wife Monique was among the 709 candidates who were initially approved on January 10. The 2005 election marked the first time that the country's voters used a single ballot in each of the two polls, presidential and parliamentary, and an awareness campaign about this was launched on February 2, continuing until February 26. Previously, a multiple ballot system had been used in elections. Subsequently, the campaign for the elections began on the morning of February 26 and lasted until midnight on March 11. First round aftermath Partial results (28.9% of polling