“Dialogue first, elections after” say opposition

While besieged President Idriss Deby has hit the campaign trail ahead of the 3 May poll, opposition parties are covering every bit of wall space in the capital N’djamena with stickers demanding that the elections be delayed until national dialogue has taken place. Deby this month survived a rebel attack on N’djamena. Many of the fighters were former government soldiers who have deserted Deby’s army in their droves since October. “We do not have any illusions about Deby accepting a dialogue at this time, but this is going to end with him accepting that demand eventually,” warned Dobian Assignar, vice-president of the Chadian International Federation for Human Rights, closely aligned to the political opposition. “For now the objective is to prevent the elections taking place on 3 May,” he added. Deby, who first came to power in a coup in 1990, ushered in multi-party politics and won two consecutive terms as president. Last year Deby amended the two-term limit in the Chadian constitution to allow himself to seek a third term, since when he has cracked down on opposition parties and the independent press, according to human rights groups. Chadian opposition parties, some of which openly support the armed rebel groups, have vowed to block Deby from seeking a third term in office and say they will boycott the 3 May poll. A top US diplomat on Wednesday joined the opposition’s call for postponing the elections. “It is not too late to suspend the organisation of these elections. We are working with the actors to start a constructive dialogue,” US State Department official Donald Yamamoto told the press after meeting with Deby on Tuesday. Diplomatic sources told IRIN that a delegation from the European Union will also meet with the President this week to ask him to postpone the election. But so far Deby has insisted that the presidential elections will go ahead as planned. On Wednesday he was campaigning in the towns Mongo in the centre of the country and Am Timan in the far east. It is his first trip outside the capital since rebels swept westwards through the country two weeks ago, briefly seizing several towns including Mongo and Am Timan before launching an assault on N’djamena that saw several hundred rebels captured by the government. Deby has accused neighbouring Sudan of sponsoring militias seeking to overthrow him and refused to acknowledge that there is a domestic rebellion in Chad. Last week Chad cut diplomatic relations with Khartoum and closed the main border crossing at Adre in the east. The “block the vote” message is proving popular in N’djamena, where heavy fighting between the national army and rebel groups is still fresh in people’s minds. “Organising elections is dangerous. We cannot pretend to love our country and then organise an election when there is so much discontent. I will not be voting on 3 May,” said university professor Djimingar Rebaye, 30. Ramadane Sidonie, a shopkeeper in the city centre agreed there was no point in having a poll. “It’s Deby versus Deby. Why should we bother voting?”