Chad’s electoral body has rejected the candidate list for next month’s parliamentary elections submitted by Mahamat Zen Bada, a senior official in President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno‘s party, due to irregularities.
The Central African nation will hold its first legislative vote since 2011 on December 29.
The ANGE election commission stated that Zen Bada submitted a false criminal record, failing to disclose a five-year prison sentence and fine from a 2012 conviction for forgery and embezzlement. He leads the electoral list for the Patriotic Salvation Movement in the southern Guera region.
The electoral agency also criticized him for not proving his release from the national police force, which would render him ineligible under electoral law. ANGE head Ahmed Bartchiret noted that Zen Bada’s candidacy did not meet the necessary conditions, resulting in the rejection of the list. He added that the party could amend its submission to comply before the election.
Zen Bada previously served as campaign manager for Idriss Deby Itno, the president’s father, who ruled Chad from 1990 until his death in 2021 during a conflict with rebels. Following his death, a junta of 15 generals declared his son the transitional president.
Three years later, the son officially won 61 per cent of the vote in a May 6 election deemed neither credible nor free by international NGOs, with his main rival calling it a “masquerade.”
Legislative elections were initially scheduled for 2015, but a constitutional law extended the parliament, delaying the vote multiple times. A presidential decree in 2021 established a 93-member transitional parliament.
