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Chad Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Chad
Official Name: Republic of Chad
Capital: N’Djamena
Area: 1,284,000 square kilometres (495,755 square miles)
Major cities (Population)
N’Djamena 613,000 (1990 estimate)
Sarh 129,600 (1992 estimate)
Moundou 117,500 (1992 estimate)
Abéché 95,800 (1992 estimate)
Population: 6,361,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 2.7 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 11 August 1960 (from France)
Constitution: A draft constitution was approved on 31 March 1996.
Voting Rights: Universal; minimum voting age not available
Government
In 1989 a new constitution providing for an elected president and parliament came into effect. However, after a rebel group—the Patriotic Salvation Movement—took power in December 1990, the constitution was suspended and parliament was dissolved. Chad was then ruled by an interim government consisting of a 33-member state council headed by a president. In 1993 a transitional council instituted a timetable for establishing an electoral code in preparation for a constitutional referendum and presidential and legislative elections. Voters approved a multi-party system in a March 1996 constitutional referendum. General Idriss Deby, the incumbent president, won the nation’s first multi-party presidential election with about 70 per cent of the vote in a July 1996 run-off election.
Recent History
Chad was torn by civil war throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The war began in 1963 when the Muslim population in the north struggled to gain control of the government. With support from neighbouring Libya, their attacks escalated during the following years. By 1979 the war had engulfed the south, the president was overthrown, and Goukouni Oueddei, a northerner, emerged as president. Former defence minister Hissène Habré, who was backed by Sudan and Egypt, recaptured N’Djamena with the aid of his troops in June 1982. In 1983 the ousted Oueddei formed a rival government in the north. In the continued civil strife, Oueddei had the backing of Libyan troops, while France sent troops and supplies to keep Habré in power. By the end of 1988, Libyan forces had been driven out of Chad, and the two nations had normalized diplomatic relations. In December 1990, however, Habré was ousted by an insurgent group, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, which had Libyan support. The rebel leader, General Idriss Deby, then assumed the presidency.
Throughout the early 1990s, Chad continued to suffer from widespread political and ethnic unrest, including the massacre of 82 civilians by President Deby's private guard in August 1993. In 1994 the Deby government reached a ceasefire agreement with the rebel group Comité de Sursaut National pour la Paix et la Démocracie (CSNPD); the CSNPD committed to withdraw troops from southern Chad, and the government agreed to appoint members of the CSNPD to the national army.
In addition, a 20-year territorial dispute with Libya came to an end in 1994 when the International Court of Justice ruled that Chad had sovereignty over the Aozou Strip, a stretch of land along the Libyan border covering about 115 square kilometres (44 square miles).
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