Presidential election in Chad: the electoral campaign ends in a tense climate
Supporters of outgoing President Idriss Déby during his last campaign rally in Ndjamena, April 9, 2021. AFP - MARCO LONGARI
Text by: RFI Follow
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Chad votes tomorrow Sunday April 11 for the presidential election.
7 candidates are in the running, including President Idriss Déby in power for 30 years and who is seeking a 6th term.
The electoral campaign ended Friday evening at midnight.
A campaign dominated by a single candidate.
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With our special
correspondent in Ndjamena,
Alexandra Brangeon
The posters of President Idriss Déby are everywhere in Ndjamena.
Friday, his campaign ended with a speech of about thirty minutes in an overcrowded stadium in the city center.
Opposite, the opposition was almost absent from the capital.
Only one candidate had planned to hold a final rally there.
But the leader of the opposition - Nialbe Felix Romadoumngar - did not show up in the end, due to convalescence after catching the Covid.
Three other candidates, former Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padaré, Lydie Beassemda, the first woman to be a presidential candidate, and Baltazar Alladoum have also chosen to end their campaign with a rally in the provinces.
A campaign which ends against a backdrop of tension with
the arrest the day before of four leaders
of small opposition parties and 1 leader of civil society, accused by the government of having planned terrorist acts, in particular "
the attack. the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission and the sacking of polling stations
”.
The military and nomads must vote this Saturday, the military to ensure security on polling day.
In addition, access to social networks or the internet has been blocked in provinces around Ndjamena, the capital.
Cuts denounced by the NGO Amnesty International.
Access to social networks and the internet is a fundamental right, it is inseparable from freedom of expression.
We ask the government to respect international texts but also Chadian laws which guarantee freedom of expression for all citizens.
Abdoulaye Diarra, researcher on Central Africa at Amnesty
Christina okello
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