After almost two weeks of tensions during the vote-counting of Chad’s presidential elections of 10 April, incumbent President Idriss Déby, of the Patriotic Salvation Movement, has secured his fifth term. Déby received 62% of the votes in the first round, followed by his rival Saleh Kebzabo, from the National Union for Democracy and Renewal, who gained only 13%. While the results were as expected, Déby’s popularity has diminished since the elections of 2011 where he won with 83,6% percent. President Déby has been ruling the country for 26 years after he gained the leadership following a successful coup in 1990 and has avoided a second voting round since 1996. The electoral commission claims a voter turnout of 71%.

The African Union, chaired by President Déby himself this year, has reported to be pleased with the way in which the elections have occurred. There have been certain shortcomings but voters were allowed to freely choose their leaders without fraud. Shortcomings that were also reported by international media are found in certain incompetence’s of polling station staff, ballot boxes disappearing during the counting process and disruption of access to Internet and mobile phones during the voting.

In the run-up to the vote, protest marches were banned and four activists campaigning against the President were given suspended sentences. Furthermore, sixty soldiers appear to have gone missing following the elections. Opposition parties and human rights organisations believe they have vanished after voting against President Déby. Tortured bodies have been recovered but could not be identified. Families from the soldiers claim that military commanders had been present to observe the voting. President Déby has denied the allegations.

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Read more on the case of the missing soldiers following the elections here and here.

For more information on the African Union report, click here.