However, during his first term in office (1993–1999), three military mutinies in 1996–1997 led to increasing conflict between so-called "northerners" (like Patassé) and "southerners" (like his predecessor President André Kolingba).

Expatriate mediators and peacekeeping troops were brought in to negotiate peace accords between Patassé and the mutineers and to maintain law and order.

Patassé's father, Paul Ngakoutou, who had served in the Free French military forces during the Second World War and afterwards worked for the colonial administration in the Province of Ouham-Pendé, was a member of the Sara-kaba people and was raised in a small village to the northeast of Boguila.

Several months later, on 1 September 1981, General André Kolingba overthrew Dacko in a bloodless coup and took power, after which he forbade political activity in the country.

Patassé felt obliged to leave the Central African Republic to live in exile once again, but on 27 February 1982, Patassé returned to the Central African Republic and participated in an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt against General Kolingba with the help of a few military officers such as General François Bozizé.

On the second round on 19 September 1993, Patassé came in first with 37 percent of the vote, well ahead of his nearest competitors, Kolingba, David Dacko and Abel Goumba.

Largely thanks to the foreign pressure notably from the USA and technical support from the UN,[citation needed] for the first time the elections were fair and democratic.

When he took office on 22 October 1993; it marked the first (and to date, only) time in the country's history that a sitting government peacefully surrendered power to the opposition.

During Patassé's first six-year term in office (22 October 1993 – 1999), the economy appeared to improve a little as the flow of donor money started up again following the elections and the apparent legitimacy they brought.

As a populist, Patassé promoted himself as a candidate who represented a majority of the population against the privileges of southerners who held a disproportionate number of lucrative jobs in the public and parastatal sectors of the economy.

Most notably, the Yakoma people had already obtained access to European education in the colonial era and were systematically favored under the presidency of Kolingba.

[2]: 4 [3]: 37  As President, Patassé lowered the pay of the Yakoma-dominated army corps (which he distrusted), and conversely created a well-paid presidential guard and other militias mainly composed of "northerners".

His subsequent use of Libyan troops as a body guard did nothing to help his reputation, either locally or with the donor community and the USA even closed their embassy temporarily.

[citation needed] The last and most serious mutiny continued until early 1997, when a semblance of order was restored after the signing of the Bangui Agreements, and with the help of troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Gabon, Mali, Senegal, and Togo.

[8]: 171  Over the course of the following two years, foreign fighters from Libya as well as Congolese rebels from the MLC (led by Jean-Pierre Bemba) were deployed in combat against Bozizé loyalists.

The MLC was later found guilty by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of committing war crimes during this intervention, including murder, rape, pillaging and torture.

The government was again criticized for widespread human rights abuses by its troops including sexual violence and the killing of dozens to a hundred Chadian nationals in Bangui;[10] additionally, Patassé cracked down on the press.

After an agreement signed in Libreville, Gabon on 22 January 2005, all barred presidential candidates were permitted to stand in the March 13 election except for Patassé, on the grounds that he was the subject of judicial proceedings.

He denied this and in an interview with Agence France-Presse on 21 December 2004, he stated that he had no idea where he could have found so much money to steal in a country with a budget of only 90–100 billion francs.

On 7 December 2008, Patassé returned to the Central African Republic for the first time since his ouster in order to participate in a national dialogue, with the government's permission.

[14] Patassé said in June 2009 that he would be leaving his Togolese exile and returning to Bangui in preparation for the 2010 presidential election, in which he planned to stand as a candidate.