He or she will be elected in a single round of voting conducted by secret ballot, with the results announced immediately afterwards.
In the capital Bangui, African and French troops were out in force in the streets Sunday in case of fresh unrest ahead of the parliamentary vote.
Some 4,400 African troops and 1,600 French soldiers have been deployed to try to restore order in the impoverished country, but both missions have been calling for back-up.
Ahead of an EU meeting on Monday expected to approve the deployment of 500 European soldiers to help secure Bangui’s airport, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Europe could not leave France alone in its bid to restore order in the country.
Clashes raged in several remote parts of the country on Saturday, and Save the Children said a grenade attack Friday on a truck convoy carrying Muslims fleeing to the northwest had killed 23 people, including three children.
An officer with the MISCA African peacekeeping force told AFP “there is some violence nearly everywhere,” pointing to Bouar in the west near the border with Cameroon, the town of Sibut north of Bangui, and Boali to the northwest of the capital.
Some 700 Muslims, mostly women and children, have taken refuge the past two nights at the Catholic parish church in Boali, according to the abbot, Xavier Fagba.
Around 70 French troops are guarding the modest church with a corrugated steel roof, where sanitary conditions are already deteriorating.
Local priest Boris Wiligale said earlier that French forces had disarmed the Seleka rebels in the town but that Christian militias had seized the opportunity to come out of the bush.
Fagba said he was concerned over what would happen if the French troops left. “Now we need trucks to evacuate all these people, it’s urgent,” he said.
The Muslims cannot contemplate taking to the road without protection, as Christian vigilantes frequently set up impromptu roadblocks.
“Do something to get us out of here,” an old man pleaded outside the church.
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