Voters choose a new parliament, provincial councils, and local councils, but the opposition called for a boycott.
Voting is now underway in Chad’s first parliamentary elections in 13 years, which the government presented as a major step towards ending military rule.
Voters will choose a new parliament, regional assemblies and local councils in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The opposition decided to boycott the elections in the North African country, which has a population of 18 million people. Turnout was low in the capital, N’Djamena, when polling stations opened their doors on Sunday.
Election officials in the upscale area where the president’s family and senior ruling figures live blame voters’ indifference to “cold weather.”
Opposition parties urged Chad’s eight million voters to avoid elections, the results of which they said had been decided in advance.
The boycott leaves the field open to candidates allied with President Mohamed Idriss Déby Itno, who was brought to power by the military in 2021 and then legitimized in presidential elections in May. Opposition candidates denounced these elections and described them as fraudulent.
“I urge all my countrymen registered on the electoral list to go out and vote en masse,” Deby wrote on Facebook, along with pictures of himself casting his vote on what he described as a “historic day.”
“Nothing has been done yet”
“The fabricated results are already in the computers,” Najah Masra, leader of the opposition Transformers Party, said on Saturday.
Patrice Lumumba Domondo, an unemployed 39-year-old, told Agence France-Presse that he voted on Sunday morning in the hope of “comprehensive change” — more jobs, less price hikes, “more justice” and “more equality.”
“Nothing has been done yet,” he said.
As in previous elections, soldiers, police officers and Bedouins cast their votes on Saturday for logistical reasons.
The Chadian electoral agency said that the turnout in the elections was “record”, exceeding 72 percent in the army and 54 percent among nomads.
“There is a lot at stake locally in this election,” she said.
Sheikh Jibreen Hasab Karim, one of their representatives, said, “The Bedouins came to ask the people who will vote tomorrow to improve their living conditions.”
He said climate change had made life difficult for his community, killing livestock, sparking clashes between sedentary farmers and making it difficult for them to feed their families.
Transition to democracy
About 100 foreign election observers and representatives of political parties are monitoring the polling stations, which will remain open until six in the evening (17:00 GMT).
On Saturday evening, the opposition Democratic Party of Chadian People said that more than a thousand ballot papers intended for the Bonjour sub-state had disappeared.
She called for “vigilance” to “thwart fraudulent networks” that she said were set up by the ruling National Salvation Movement party.
The vote is taking place against the backdrop of repeated attacks launched by the Boko Haram armed group in the Lake Chad region, the termination of a military agreement with former colonialist France, and accusations against Chad of interfering in the conflict sweeping neighboring Sudan.
The government presented the elections as the final stage in the transition to democracy.
Déby took power in 2021 after the death of his father, who ruled the Sahel country for three decades.
