Chad votes to allow president to run unlimited times

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

(Reuters) -Chad’s national assembly has endorsed constitutional revisions that would extend the presidential term from five to seven years and allow the president to serve an unlimited number of times.

President Mahamat Idriss Deby seized power in Chad after his father, long-serving President Idriss Deby, was killed as he was visiting troops fighting militias in the north of the country in 2021.

He claimed victory following a disputed election held after three years of military rule in May 2024. Parliamentary elections followed in December, granting the vast majority of seats to the ruling party.

Chad’s new constitution sailed through the National Assembly on Monday and is due for a final vote by the Senate on October 13.

The National Assembly approved the changes on Monday by a vote of 171 in support, one abstention and zero against, its President Ali Kolotou Tchaimi told reporters on Monday. The Senate will vote on October 13, and then the president will sign the constitution into law.

Remadji Hoinathy, a senior researcher at the Africa-focused Institute for Security Studies, said the text was virtually certain to pass the final vote next month and was the latest step by the ruling elite to cement its grip on power.

“There are fewer and fewer dissenting voices,” he said in an interview. “This clearly opens the possibility for the president and ruling party to establish a long-term stronghold on power.”

Chad was the first of the junta-led states in West and Central Africa to vote following a string of coups in recent years. The outcome was disputed after opposition leader and then-prime minister Succes Masra also claimed victory.

Masra, the most vocal figure in the opposition, stepped down after the vote and in August was sentenced to 20 years in jail for inciting violence.

(Reporting by Mahamat Ramane; Writing by Jessica Donati; Editing by Sharon Singleton)