Tensions continue to mount in Chad, with opposition and so-called civil society groups vowing to disrupt Sunday’s local council, regional and parliamentary elections. The groups say the polls will be rigged to favor current President Mahamat Idriss Deby, and are visiting towns and villages warning people to stay home to avoid possible street violence.
Chadians in the country’s capital, N’djamena, say uncertainty looms in the central African state ahead of elections slated to take place Sunday.
Twenty-three-year old Limana Abba, a student at the university of N’djamena, told VOA via a messaging app Friday that opponents of the elections have been visiting neighborhoods to warn people against voting.
He says he is not sure he and a majority of registered voters will be able to vote because opposition and civil society groups have increased threats to attack those who vote on Sunday.
In Chad, civil society groups are associations authorized to help with the country’s governance, human rights and democratic process. It’s not clear if the groups threatening violence Sunday qualify as civil society under that definition.
In any case, Limana has concerns about whether the military and police can protect voters, candidates and election officials, despite pledges from the government to do so.
Chadian officials told state TV this week that government troops and police have been deployed to safeguard civilians and their property, and to stop what the government calls the possible use of weapons by disgruntled civilians.
Ahead of the vote, political parties and aligned groups have been holding daily campaigns against the elections.
Soumaine Adoum, the spokesperson of Wakit Tama, a coalition of over a hundred groups, spoke to a press conference in N’djamena Thursday.
He said civilians do not trust Deby, who wants to continue his father, Idriss Deby Itno’s roughly 30-year rule at all costs. He added all Chadians should stay at home on Sunday as a sign of protest against the armed conflicts, corruption, abuses of press freedom, suffocation of liberties and democracy, and illegal arrests and detention of opposition and civil society members that have characterized Deby’s rule.
Soumaine said the Elections Management Body, ANGE, cannot claim the elections will be free, fair and credible when Deby is preparing to use government troops to stuff ballot boxes as he did during the central country’s May 6 presidential election.
Deby and ANGE denied the presidential election was rigged, and ANGE has always claimed it organizes free, fair and transparent elections free of government intervention.
The elections management body is asking civilians to brave the threats and contribute to the country’s development by taking part in Sunday’s polls.
Scores of opposition and civil society members have been arrested ahead of the polls.
Government officials say police called in several dozen people for questioning this week because of complaints from Deby’s ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement that their campaign teams were attacked and election materials destroyed.
Sunday’s local, regional and parliamentary elections were organized to mark an end to Chad’s three-year transition period after the death of longtime President Idriss Deby Itno in April 2021.
The legislative elections are aimed at restoring the 188-member National Assembly that was dissolved in April 2021 when the army took power.
Officials say government troops will vote Saturday, before the general voting, then be on alert to intervene in case of violence when civilians vote Sunday.
