Low turnout in Chad parliamentary election boycotted by opposition as military rule ends 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.
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 election will “pave the way for the era of decentralization so long awaited and desired by the Chadian people," Deby said.
