CHAD – Six million Chadians on Sunday went to the polls in an election likely to see president Idriss Déby extend his 26-year rule in a country increasingly on the frontline of the global war on terror.

Déby, the warrior president who took office in a 1990 military coup, faces 12 challengers but is widely expected to win a fifth term after consolidating his grip on power in the central African nation. Polling stations opened shortly after 7am and were to close at 6pm. Early votes were cast on Saturday by soldiers, nomads and refugees. Official provisional results may not be released for two weeks. At polling stations in the capital N’Djamena, men and women waited in separate queues to cast their ballots. Security forces were out en masse for the election.(theguardian)…[+]