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afrol News, 21 May - Turnout was high in yesterday's presidential election in Chad, which was reported to be peaceful and orderly. Incumbent President Idriss Deby, seeking his second term, is favourite and hopes to achieve over 50 percent of the vote to avoid a second round. No incidents have been reported from Chad, as over 50 percent of the electorate yesterday went to the poll stations. The National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) and the 40 international election observers have confirmed that the election went peaceful and that no major irregularities so far have been reported. Large queues at the poll stations were reported already on Sunday morning. The Electoral Commission's president, Yokabdjim Mandigui, today announced that the results were not expected before 27 May. Intentions to computerise the poll stations had failed. Incumbent President Deby stands against six other presidential candidates. Deby's main challengers are believed to be a fellow former warlord, Wadal Abelkader Kamougué for the Renewal and Democracy Union (URD), and an ex-journalist, Saleh Kebzabo for the National Union for Development and Renewal (UNDR). Kamougué achieved 30 percent of the votes in the 1996 presidential election. Under the last presidential elections, five years ago, Chad experienced its long awaited return to democratic institutions in a poll President Deby only won in the second round. Although the government's respect of these institutions and of human rights has been shifting, Deby's regime has brought relative peace, stability and major investments to war-ridden Chad, a fact observers expect he will be rewarded with in this poll. Idriss Deby has ruled in Chad since taking power in a 1990 rebellion, and he was elected president in 1996. According to credible reports, fraud, widespread vote-rigging, and local irregularities marred both the 1996 presidential election and the 1997 legislative elections. Since then, however, foreign investments crucial to Chad's future as an oil producer have been linked directly to democracy and human rights improvements. Although the run-up to the election was noted by opposition complaints over voters' registration and a government ban on political discussions in the private media, the actual poll seems to have been carried out free and fairly. The team of international election observers stationed in Chad so far have given their approval of yesterday's election. "We have not revealed deliberate fraud," Nigerien observer Idé Oumarou told AFP. A spokesman however said that the observers' central in the capital N'djamena still had to receive reports from all posts across the country. Several parts do not have a telephone connection. Leaders of the main opposition parties of Chad, including the UNDR and the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), however have claimed that the electoral list had been compiled on false premises. The opposition earlier had called for a postponement of the presidential elections, describing the polls as an "electoral masquerade". They wanted the polls postponed until the fighting had ended in the northern region of Tibesti, but the Electoral Commission turned this down. UNDR President Saleh Kebzabo neither believes the count of the votes will be conducted in a fair and transparent way, as "80 percent of the people composing the Electoral Commission" are from President Deby's ruling party. He says he expects the 1996 rigged poll, when Kebzabo obtained 8.6% of the votes, to be repeated this year. Chad has never changed its head of state peacefully through elections. Idriss Deby has however indicated he would leave office if his defeat would be announced. The most probable scenarios are however that Deby is re-elected in the first round, or that a second round, which would be held on 1 July, re-instates him.
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