Chad votes in parliamentary election as military rule ends

CHADIANS voted on Sunday in a parliamentary and regional election 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.

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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 long-time 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