Chad electoral list for upcoming elections to be completed
Officials will complete voter roll preparations for the legislative election in the central African nation of Chad today.
The election, which was originally scheduled for last August, has now been postponed until October 2021. President Idriss Deby has occupied the executive since 1990, winning five consecutive though highly criticised elections. Meanwhile, the nation’s parliamentary elections have been postponed since 2015 (the last election took place in 2011) for a variety of reasons. Growing extremist activity associated with Boko Haram, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, a looming refugee crisis on the Sudanese border and an insurgency in the north have hobbled the government, forcing it to withdraw its military commitments in Cameroon. The global plummet of oil prices has not helped either.
As instability has prevented previous elections, Deby is unlikely to hold elections in the near future, content with the super-majority in parliament. The fragmented opposition parties are unable to resist such a manoeuvre at any rate and Deby can depend on French military support for his regime if challenged by extremists. Thus, expect the elections to be postponed again past 2021 as the regime buys time to ride out the growing number of threats.
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