* CAR holds long-delayed presidential, parliamentary votes
* Incumbent seen as favourite to retain top job
By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Central African Republic holds long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday unlikely to bring stability to the mineral-rich but fragmented nation.
President Francois Bozize, in power since a 2003 coup, goes into the vote the favourite but could need a run-off to secure victory. Even then, his authority will continue to be challenged by political rivals and bands of rebels and bandits.
Hundreds of candidates will also vie for 105 seats in a parallel vote for the country's parliament on the same day.
The polls, originally due last April, have been delayed three times due to lack of funds and trouble disarming rebels who have signed peace deals but still roam the northwest and the northeast, often involved in criminality as much as politics.
"I think there are likely to be some problems but it will get pushed through, like most other things in the process," said Ned Dalby, central Africa analyst at think tank Crisis Group.
Some 1.8 million people out of a population of 4.6 million have registered to vote and Dalby said glitches were likely to include delivering voting equipment on time to remote provinces cut off by crippled infrastructure.
Some election workers complain they have not been paid.
But Dalby said there would be pressure to complete the poll and Bozize had bolstered his position by co-opting some former rebels as advisers.
"The international community doesn't want a mess. They want elections that are as good as can be expected. The general expectation is that Bozize will win with a comfortable margin," he said.
Five candidates are standing. Bozize's main challengers will be Ange Felix Patasse -- an ex-president ousted by Bozize who returned from years in exile to run as an independent candidate -- and Martin Ziguele, a former prime minister of Patasse's.
If none of the candidates wins an outright majority in the first round, a second will be held in March.
"In (the last election in) 2005, we had to throw everything at beating Ziguele in the second round even though we previously thought we were going to win in one round," a former member of Bozize's government told Reuters, asking not to be named.
"This time around, I have to say, the task will not be easy for Bozize," the official added.
REBELS AND ROUGH ROADS
Bozize defeated Ziguele with 67 percent of the vote in the last election, but he has struggled to pacify or develop vast swathes of the landlocked nation, which is second from bottom on the United Nations index for development.
Aside from home-grown insurgents, who often run rackets, extorting from traders and local populations, Lord's Resistance Army rebels who left Uganda years ago to roam across central Africa have moved into CAR's east, terrorising civilians.
U.N. peacekeepers previously mandated to provide security in the north left last year but a regional peacekeeping force remains in the country to bolster weak national security forces.
According to aid workers, a million people are affected by violence but the country is wedged between more high-profile crises in Chad, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, so is often overlooked by the outside world.
The former French colony is rich in diamonds, uranium and gold, but instability and isolation, with roads often crumbling not far outside the capital, has discouraged investment.
"The priority after these elections must be the launching of projects that help CAR escape from the group of least developed countries in the world," said Ghislain Nguinda, a high-school teacher. (Writing and additional reporting by David Lewis; editing by Andrew Roche)
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