- Title: CHAD: Chadian president rides in style but polls fails to excite
- Date: 29th April 2006
- Summary: PRESIDENT DEBY SINGING (2 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 14th May 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Chad
- Country: Chad
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA5ZGYDFL2B6RN46HOGJE9FJOV7
- Story Text: Horns blaring, escorted by truckloads of gun-toting soldiers, five gleaming Hummer vehicles with tinted windows force their way through the crowds of a dusty market in the Chadian capital N'Djamena. The luxury automobiles which seem out of place in the dirt-poor African market carry Chad's President Idriss Deby on the campaign trail canvassing for votes for an election next Wednesday (May 3) which armed rebels threaten to disrupt and his opponents are boycotting as a farce aimed at keeping him in office. Pitted against four weaker candidates, he is expected to be easily re-elected for a third term. President Deby, who has ruled oil and cotton producer Chad since seizing power in 1990, is standing for a third term.
Chadian authorities on Friday (April 28) brushed aside calls to postpone the election and said neither rebel threats of violence nor logistical obstacles would stop it going ahead. Despite recent attacks by armed rebels, including a raid on the capital, electoral officials said all was ready to hold the polls in the vast, landlocked central African country twice the size of France where planes, trucks, and even camels had been used to distribute ballot papers.
Bolstered by French political and military support, government forces have fought off the insurgents Deby says are backed by neighbour Sudan. He insists Chad must hold the vote as scheduled under the constitution or face the risk of civil war. Deby, a former army commander who himself seized power in 1990 in an eastern revolt, is refusing to negotiate with the rebels he dismisses as "mercenaries" backed by neighbour Sudan.
The main opposition parties, which portray him as an autocratic ruler who has favoured his own ethnic Zaghawa clan but neglected the country, are shunning the election as a farce. They point out Deby faces only four challengers, all linked to or sympathetic to his administration.
In a sign the anti-Deby rebels were preparing for a possible fresh attack, neighbouring Central African Republic said it had detected two planeloads of armed men making unauthorised landings this week in its north, close to the Chad border. The government in Bangui called on the international community, particularly France, for help to prevent the illegal use of its territory.
French warplanes, part of a French military contingent stationed in Chad, have been flying surveillance flights and passing on information about the rebels' positions to the government. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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