Chad postpones election to early 2020

• Long-delayed legislative polls that Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno had vowed to hold by year's end.
• The head of the electoral commission, Kodi Mahamat.
• Mahamat cautioned that even with the delay, the election hinged on funding.

N'DJAMENA: Long-delayed legislative polls that Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno had vowed to hold by year's end are likely to take place in the first three months of 2020, the country's election board said on Thursday.

The head of the electoral commission, Kodi Mahamat, told a press conference "the realistic timeframe for holding legislative elections (is) the first quarter of 2020".

The last poll for the National Assembly took place in 2011, when the president's party gained a majority.

The scheduled 2015 vote has been repeatedly delayed -- a situation blamed by Deby on a lack of funds in one of the world's most impoverished states, and the threat posed by Nigerian jihadists Boko Haram.

Mahamat cautioned that even with the delay, the election hinged on funding, and urged Chad's "financial and technical partners" to provide "support".

The fate of the elections has been closely watched by rights campaigners, who are scrutinising both the delay and feared restrictions on freedom of campaigning.

Deby has ruled the huge landlocked country since coming to power in a coup in 1990, which was followed by a series of presidential elections.

The 67-year-old is viewed by many western leaders as a bulwark against Islamist extremism in the fragile Sahel region.

His supporters passed a controversial bill in 2018 that bolstered his powers, despite opposition warnings that it would undermine democracy.

Chad has oil, gold and uranium deposits, but many of its 13 million people live in deep poverty.