An election in Chad

In case you missed it, there's been a presidential election in Chad, a highly unstable African country known mostly these days for its association with Darfur (there are some 200,000 Darfur refugees in Chad, not to mention various rebel groups). According to the BBC, President Idriss Deby, who first came to power in 1990, won re-election with 77.5 percent of the vote. For more on Deby, see here:

He originally came to power in 1990, and ruled provisionally until 1996.

He has since won presidential polls in 1996 and 2001, although both victories were marred by claims of electoral fraud.

Despite initially saying that he would not stand again, Mr Deby organised a constitutional referendum in 2005 which removed the two-term limit for the presidency, paving the way for him to seek a third term.

If that isn't troubling enough, consider that the leading opposition parties boycotted this most recent election. They accuse him of corruption, specifically of "siphoning off oil revenues". And that's not all: "They have accused the government of tampering with the electoral roll, abusing election laws and reshuffling the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to favour the president." The four other candidates "are known to be political allies of the president".

Observers from the African Union and non-governmental organizations have called the election "free, open and fair". But you have to wonder, don't you?