Chadian News

Chad's Deby rides in style but poll fails to excite
Sat Apr 29, 2006 1:01 PM GMT

By Pascal Fletcher

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - 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.

Only the ragged urchin boys show any excitement, racing after the sleek luxury automobiles which seem out of place in the dirt-poor African market. Some people stare out of curiosity. There are few waves or cheers.

This is Chad's President Idriss Deby on the campaign trail, canvassing for votes for an election next Wednesday 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.

In N'Djamena's Dembe market, the election seems to generate little enthusiasm among ordinary Chadians scrabbling to eke out a living in Africa's fifth-largest country.

Despite becoming an oil producer in 2003, landlocked Chad is one of the continent's poorest and most corrupt nations.

"Our children are suffering. We don't have enough to eat. Deby should negotiate with the rebels. We need peace. The elections should be postponed," said Mahamat Djien, a trader.

Many around him nodded their agreement.

Dembe market is not far from Chad's parliament, where rebels who raided N'Djamena early on April 13 clashed with government troops in fighting that killed several hundred and set diplomatic alarm bells ringing in Paris and Washington.

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.

He is also ignoring calls from opponents and others to postpone the May 3 vote and organise a national forum to discuss democratic change.

At Dembe market, many dismissed the elections as pointless.

"For me, these elections mean nothing. We already know what the result will be. It's just the force that's in power continuing to rule. I'm not going to vote," said Edouard Tchombe, 22, who is unemployed.

"We want change. We want the rebels to come but we want them to negotiate, not to attack and shed blood. The elections are no use," said Socrate Youssuf, a student.

"DEVILS"

At an earlier rally staged by Deby's ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) at an N'Djamena suburb near the Cameroon border, the mood was more upbeat.

To the cheers of a few hundred MPS supporters, including ululating women, Deby -- wearing spectacles, a white robe and hat and a party scarf -- urged Chadians to vote on May 3 and to give him an outright first round victory.

"Don't listen to those who are saying "don't vote" on May 3. They are devils," he told the crowd, speaking in Arabic and flanked by his wife and red-bereted presidential guards wearing dark sunglasses.

Deby's critics in the opposition, who denounced his last election victory in 2001 as riddled with irregularities, say his stubborn insistence on going ahead with the May 3 poll reflects a nearly 16-year rule that has become autocratic and corrupt.

"It's basically just him running in these elections. We can't accept that. I'm not going (to vote)," said Modouhassan Akra, a 45-year-old driver in Dembe market.

Despite fears the rebels may attack again, election officials say all is ready for voting in the vast country twice the size of France, where authorities have used trucks, planes, and even camels to carry ballot papers to the remote sun-blasted mountains and deserts of the north and east.