By Edouard Takaji, Associated Press
14 minutes ago
N'Djamena, Chad (AP) – Voters in Chad will be at the polls on Monday to cast their votes in a long-delayed presidential election that is scheduled to end three years of military rule under caretaker President Mahamat Deby Itno. I headed to
Debbie Itno took power after her father, who had ruled the country for more than 30 years, was killed in fighting with rebels in 2021. Last year, the government announced it would extend the 18-month transition period for another two years, sparking protests across the country.
There are 10 candidates on the ballot, including a woman. Analysts expect Debbie Itono to emerge as the frontrunner. Yaya Dilo, a leading opposition figure and cousin of the current president, was killed in February, but the circumstances remain unclear.
“For years, we have had to endure the high cost of living without any solutions,” Adumazi Jan, a state secondary school teacher in Moen Chari province, said in an interview with The Associated Press. Told. “We want to see change this year through this election,” he added.
In addition to rising food prices that contributed to the war in Ukraine, Chad has absorbed a wave of more than 500,000 refugees from neighboring Sudan and is grappling with the threat of the Boko Haram insurgency spreading from its southwest border with Nigeria. ing.
Boko Haram started an insurgency against Western education more than a decade ago and is seeking to establish Islamic law in northeastern Nigeria. The rebellion also spread to neighboring countries in West Africa, including Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.
In March, seven soldiers were killed in an attack that the government blamed on Boko Haram, following a period of peace in 2020 when the Chadian army successfully carried out an operation to destroy the militant group's strongholds there. Fears of violence in the Lake Chad region have been reignited. Schools, mosques and churches have reopened, and humanitarian organizations have returned.
Human rights groups are calling for an investigation into the killing of Chad's main opposition figure, Dilo. The government said Mr. Dilo was killed during an attack on the National Security Agency by his group, known as Socialists Without Borders. However, photos of Dillo showed that he died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Human Rights Watch said the killings raised serious concerns about the electoral environment.
Michelle Gavin of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said: “His most powerful opponents have been co-opted or eliminated, and key electoral institutions have been solidified with his supporters. , Debbie Itono's victory is almost certain.”
The oil-exporting country, with a population of about 18 million people, has not had a free and fair transfer of power since it gained independence in 1960 after 40 years of French colonial rule.
