Chad: vote counting underway in contentious elections amid opposition boycott

Polls closed Sunday (29 December) in Chad’s legislative, provincial and local elections after three years of military rule, but were boycotted by the opposition that accuses authorities of fraud and of failing to oversee a credible electoral process.
After Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno won a disputed presidential election in May, his government is now presenting these polls as a key step toward transition to democratic rule. But the main opposition parties boycotted the Sunday’s vote, with the opposition leader Succes Masra criticizing the process, alleging vote rigging, claiming that “the fabricated results are already in the computers.” On the flip side, the boycott of the elections has led to the sidelining of the opposition, leaving the field open to candidates aligned with incumbent Idriss Deby Itno. The vote was also marred by allegations by the opposition party PDPT about missing ballots in the southern city of Bongor, which prompted it to call the public for vigilance against alleged fraud. In a controversial move during the presidential election in May, Chadian authorities banned 2,900 EU-trained observers from monitoring the poll.
The voting was being held amid a broad array of security challenges, including the country’s tensions with France, recurring attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region, and allegations of interference in Sudan’s conflict. This first legislative elections since 2011 also took place under heavy criticism of the government for autocratic practices and repression, highlighted by a media blackout due to a strike by online journalists. The oil-exporting country of 18 million people, among Africa’s poorest, had not had a free and fair transfer of power since it gain independence from its colonial master, France, in 1960.