Chad Sets Parliamentary Election For December 13

Chad will hold parliamentary elections on December 13 after a five-year delay blamed on terrorist activity, the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) announced Friday

N'Djamena, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Feb, 2020 ) :Chad will hold parliamentary elections on December 13 after a five-year delay blamed on terrorist activity, the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) announced Friday.

The current National Assembly was elected in 2011 for four years and is largely dominated by supporters of President Idriss Deby, who took power in a rebellion in December 1990.

Deby has defended successive postponements of the poll because of the "terrorist threat" posed by Nigerian radical jihadist movement Boko Haram.

Boko Haram is particularly active in the Lake Chad region, a vast stretch of water, channels and marshland to the northwest of Ndjamena, providing countless hideouts for the armed group.

Lake Chad is also the crossroads of the borders of Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger south of the Sahel.

With Benin, the four countries have banded together for military strikes on the jihadists.

CENI on Friday gave media outlets the timetable for the vote, which provides for the beginning of campaigning on November 21.

Provisional results will be announced on December 27. The definitive results will be later issued by the Supreme Court.

The new National Assembly will have 161 lawmakers, down from 188 currently.

Deby's government last month lifted a five-month state of emergency on Tibesti province in the north and Ouaddai and Sila in the east.

The army was deployed in force in the east, where the government in January announced that more than 10,000 weapons had been recovered.

One opposition party had made its acceptance of the election date conditional on lifting the state of emergency.

"I would like to hail the triumph of consensus in the political class" in setting the date, said CENI's first vice-president, Jean-Luc Benoudjita.