N’DJAMENA, Chad, May 6, (AP): Voters in Chad headed to the polls on Monday to cast their ballot in a long delayed presidential election that is set to end three years of military rule under interim president, Mahamat Deby Itno.
Deby Itno seized power after his father who ran the country for more than three decades was killed fighting rebels in 2021. Last year, the government announced it was extending the 18-month transition for two more years, which provoked protests across the country.
There are 10 candidates on the ballot, including a woman. Analysts say Deby Itno is expected to emerge among the front runners. The main opposition figure Yaya Dillo, the current president’s cousin, was killed in February in circumstances that remain unclear.
“For years now, we’ve had to cope with the high cost of living, without any solution,” said Adoumadji Jean, a teacher at a state secondary school in Moyen-Chari province, in an interview with The Associated Press. “We want a change this year through this election”, he added.
Along with high food prices partly caused by the war in Ukraine, Chad has absorbed a wave of over half a million refugees from neighboring Sudan, and is dealing with a threat from the Boko Haram insurgency spilling over from its southwestern border with Nigeria.
Boko Haram launched an insurgency more than a decade ago against Western education and seeks to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast. The insurgency has spread to West African neighbors including Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Chad holds presidential election after years of military rule
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