Chad's Deby sets delayed elections for 2018
PIETERMARITZBURG - A farmer has been arrested after he allegedly shot a mourner at a funeral on his farm in Cramond in Pietermaritzburg, police said yesterday.
"The incident took place on Saturday at 13:00 hours… the 66-year-old farmer came and asked the people who were attending a funeral to leave," Captain Nqobile Gwala said about the incident at the farm in the Otto’s Bluff area.
"When one of the family members tried to intervene, the farmer drew his gun and (allegedly) shot the man."
The victim of the shooting, aged 42, sustained gunshot wounds to the upper body. He died at the scene.
After the shooting, the farmer fled the scene in his vehicle. However, police were able to apprehend and arrest him. He was found in possession of two rifles, one 9mm pistol and a toy gun.
He is expected to appear in the New Hanover Magistrate’s Court this week. NDJAMENA - The President of Chad, Idriss Deby, on Sunday said general elections, scheduled for 2015 but much postponed, would be held this year.
“I am happy to announce, on the cusp of the New Year, that legislative elections will be organised in 2018,” Deby said in a televised address, urging all politicians to show responsibility and patriotism in the run-up to the poll.
The country’s parliament was due to be dissolved on June 21, 2015, but the constitutional court extended its term.
Deby, who took office in 1990 and won a contested fifth term in April 2016, delayed polls still further last February.
The opposition derided his comments that the country did not have the financial means to hold polls before 2019 and have dubbed the current parliament illegitimate.
On Sunday, he declared that “this major electoral event is awaited by Chad’s entire political class” and would be a source of “great political fervor.”
Deby also announced the creation of an “inclusive national forum” in the oil-producing nation to bring together political organisations to examine in detail “different approaches to (political) reform.
“We have to pay close attention to peace and security, which are primordial conditions for progress,” said Deby, warning the country it must not drop its guard in “the fight against terrorism.”
Chad is an ally of the West in sub-Saharan Africa in tackling Islamist radicalism. But a prolonged slump in oil prices has taken a heavy toll on the country’s economy in recent years. – AFP.