Chad votes for new president

Chad votes for new president

N'DJAMENA (Reuters): Chadians from northern desert to southern jungles voted on Sunday to decide who will rule the Central African country for the next five years, when oil money promises to transform its desperately poor economy.

President Idriss Deby, 49, hopes to extend more than a decade of rule that began when he seized power at the head of a lightning rebellion in the former French colony in 1990.

Voting began after the scheduled 6 a.m. (11 a.m. in Jakarta) start in many parts of Chad, which is twice the size of its former colonial power, spanning black and Arab Africa and stretching from the southern jungle to the middle of the Sahara desert.

Hundreds gathered at polling booths in the capital, N'Djamena, with men and women in different lines. Some booths were improvised from sheets strung between road-side trees.

Deby himself voted at a polling station in the agriculture ministry in central N'Djamena.

"I have come to do my duty as a citizen, and I hope the whole Chadian community will come out in large numbers to do their duty in peace and unity," he told reporters.

Asked about his chances in the poll, he said: "Let's wait and see."

After voting, Deby shook hands with Ide Oumarou, spokesman for a group of international observers monitoring the poll and a former secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity.

Ide said the vote in the capital appeared to have started well despite brief delays.

"If everything goes as it has here, it indicates a high turnout. All is calm, orderly and peaceful. Our wish is that the day continues as it has started," Ide told reporters.

Deby is favorite to win. His main opponents are national assembly speaker Wadel Abdelkader Kamougue, 62, a former rebel leader who came second in the first multi-party election in 1996, and Saleh Kebzabo, 54, who came third and then backed Deby in a run-off.

Opposition candidates accuse Deby of planning to rig the vote, repeating claims made after the 1996 ballot.

They have said they will join forces to back a single challenger if nobody wins an outright majority on Sunday and voting goes to a second round.

Some 4.6 million Chadians are registered to vote, including over half a million living abroad, mostly in Sudan, with which Deby's home region in northeastern Chad has close links.

Opposition candidates say voters' lists are inaccurate, but Ide said it was too early to say whether the ballot was fair or not.

An important issue in the campaign is the project led by U.S.- based ExxonMobil Corp to pump oil from landlocked Chad via a pipeline through Cameroon to the Atlantic.

The first oil is due to flow in 2003 and Deby's opponents say he did not negotiate a good enough deal. Deby is from the Muslim north. Five of his challengers are from the south where there are many more Christians and animists.