Chadians voted Sunday amid a low turnout in parliamentary and regional elections that will end a three-year transitional period from military rule but which the main opposition is boycotting after accusing authorities of not overseeing a credible electoral process.
The parliamentary election is the first in more than a decade in Chad and comes months after the junta leader, Mahamat Idriss Deby, won a disputed presidential vote that was meant to return democracy. Deby took power in 2021 following the death of his father and longtime president Idriss Deby Itno, who spent three decades in power.
Voting ended late Monday although official results won't be known for about two weeks. The election will “pave the way for the era of decentralization so long awaited and desired by the Chadian people," Deby said. The oil-exporting country of 18 million people, among Africa’s poorest, had not had a free and fair transfer of power since it became independent from France in 1960. The elections this year are the first in junta-led countries in Africa’s Sahel region to hold a promised but delayed return to democracy.
At least 8 million voters are registered to elect 188 legislators in the Central African nation’s new National Assembly. Representatives at the provincial and municipal levels will also be elected. There was a low voter turnout in the capital N’Djamena, where only a handful of voters were seen in some polling stations.
