Chadian parliamentary election, 2009

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Chad

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A parliamentary election is planned to be held in Chad in 2009, following a 2007 agreement between the ruling party and the opposition.

The election had first been postponed to one year from April 2006 to April 2007 due to the lack of funds to organize them. Later it was postponed to December due to the civil war in the east of the country.^{[citation needed]}

On August 13, 2007, the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) of President Idriss Déby, its allies, and most opposition parties signed an agreement after six months of negotiations regarding the organization of the election. According to the agreement, an electoral census will be organized, an improved electoral file will be created,^[1] and a new 31-member independent electoral commission, with equal representation for the ruling majority and the opposition and a president of the commission agreed upon by the parties, will be established. The agreement also provides for the use of single ballots,^[1][2] for the security forces to vote one day before the rest of the population,^[1] and for nomads to vote on the day of the election instead of beforehand as in the past.^[2] Additionally, the agreement provides for the inclusion of the opposition in the government. To allow time for the agreement to be implemented, the election will be delayed until 2009 and the mandate of the current National Assembly will be extended until then. Déby described the agreement as a step towards peace. The agreement was signed by 87 parties; the only major opposition group that did not sign was Federation, Action for the Republic (FAR).^[1]

FAR President Ngarlejy Yorongar criticized the agreement as inadequate and said that signing it would be a "waste of time". He said that there should instead be a dialogue involving the entire political scene, including rebels, the exiled opposition, and civil society, and that a credible election could not be conducted while a rebellion was taking place in part of the country. Yorongar was also critical of the fact that the independent electoral commission would be subject to the decisions of the Constitutional Council, which he alleged is controlled by Déby, and of the management of the electoral census by the government instead of the electoral commission.^[3]

A committee overseeing the implementation of the agreement was subsequently set up, headed by Lol Mahamat Choua, the President of the Rally for Democracy and Progress opposition party. ^[4] During a battle between government forces and rebels in N'Djamena in February 2008, several opposition leaders, including Choua, were arrested, and doubt was subsequently cast over the future of the agreement by members of the opposition.^[5]

Following the arrests of the opposition leaders, the Coordination of Political Parties for the Defence of the Constitution (CPDC), a coalition whose leader, Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh, was among those arrested, suspended its participation on the follow-up committee.^[6]

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