Opposition parties have called on Chadians to boycott the vote, calling it a fraud aimed at consolidating power for the ruling party.
Voting for the general election has begun in Chad. President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has called it an important step in the transition to democracy, but the country’s opposition parties are boycotting it.
Chad’s military and herders were called to vote on Saturday for logistical reasons.
But most citizens of the African country of about 20 million people are scheduled to vote on Sunday to choose their national parliament, regional and regional assemblies. Voting will be open from 6am to 5pm local time (05:00 to 16:00 GMT).
Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soy, reporting from the capital N’Djamena on Saturday afternoon, said she felt many Chadians were “apathetic” in the run-up to the vote.
“They say they can’t expect any change. They say they believe the ruling party will win no matter what,” she said.
“Many of them are just talking about the fundamental problem… of the very high cost of living. They’re talking about rampant corruption and nepotism.”
The country’s opposition parties have called on people to boycott the vote, calling it a fraud.
“We will not be campaigning and we will not be voting on December 29th. Please stay home and ask others to do the same,” the main opposition Transformers Party said in a Facebook post.
Still, about 45% of the country’s 200,000 nomadic tribesmen and 45,000 soldiers had cast their votes by noon Saturday, according to initial estimates.
According to AFP news agency, military personnel began arriving early in the morning at the polling station in Koundur barracks near N’Djamena.
“Voting is taking place as usual. The military is voting freely,” said Ousmane Huzibe, a senior election official.
“Serious concerns”
The elections are being held against a backdrop of repeated attacks by the Boko Haram rebel group in the Lake Chad region.
Chad also recently ended a military pact with former colonial power France and faces accusations of meddling in the conflict ravaging neighboring Sudan.
President Deby’s government has positioned the weekend’s elections as a key step in the transition to democratic governance.
The 40-year-old leader took power in 2021 after the death of his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled the country with an iron fist for 30 years.
Analyst Mamadou Bodian said the election marked an “important milestone” in ending a three-year transition period, but was still highly contested and favored the ruling Movement for Patriotic Salvation (MPS). He said that it is believed that
“Even the election administration appears to be controlled by individuals loyal to the ruling party,” Bodian told Al Jazeera. “And this raises serious concerns not only about the process but also about the independence of the electoral system as a whole.”
A lack of international observers and an “opaque” vote-counting process are also exacerbating long-standing distrust in Chad’s elections, Bodian said.
The opposition boycott “reflects a widespread belief that these elections are neither free nor fair,” he added. “And this also calls into question Chad’s democratic prospects.”
Deby won a five-year presidential term in May after a vote that opposition parties denounced as fraudulent. The last parliamentary elections were in 2011.
