Thousands of people gathered in Chad's capital Saturday for a meeting organised by opposition leaders urging them to join a boycott of next week's presidential "election circus". "To vote on April 25 is to commit suicide. It is to self-destruct," said an "Appeal to the people of Chad not to vote on April 25", read out at the meeting on the last day of election campaigning in N'djamena.
"A single point of order: a 100 percent boycott," added Saleh Kebzabo, president of the National Union for Democracy and Renewal, one of three candidates to have withdrawn from the presidential race, all but handing victory to incumbent Idriss Deby Itno.
Kebzabo, whose party is the biggest in opposition with nine national assembly seats, is joined by Wadal Abdelkader Kamougue, who leads the Union for Renewal and Democracy with seven seats, and Ngarlejy Yorongar of the Federation Action for the Republic, with four. The three men claim their calls for electoral reforms, including the issuing of new voters' cards, have gone unheeded and say the polls would be unfair.
Only two candidates from smaller parties, Albert Pahimi Padacke and Nadji Madou, remain in the race to challenge Deby who has been in power since 1990 after unseating dictator Hissene Habre in a coup. Deby, who is seeking his fourth term, said on Friday the poll would be "credible" adding that the real reason for his former challengers' boycott was that "they realise they will be beaten".
But the appeal read out at Saturday's gathering urged Chadians "not to support the electoral robbery that is taking place". "People fear for their lives, this is a police state," one of the demonstrators, Chris, said at the gathering, refusing to give his surname.
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