Yaoundé, Cameroon—

Nearly 20 candidates will challenge military ruler General Mohamed Idriss Deby in Chad’s May 6 presidential election, officials said. The final list of candidates for elections to end three years of military rule in the Central African country is expected to be officially announced on March 24, according to Chad’s Constitutional Council.

Among the presidential candidates is Ngeral Coumaji-Mariam, president of the Chadian National Alliance for Alternatives, the only female candidate.

Maryam said she is committed to achieving social justice and ensuring equality between men and women as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. She spoke to VOA by phone from N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, on Monday.

Mariam said she intended to combat widespread corruption that has plunged most of Chad’s nearly 17 million people into extreme poverty. She said if Chad’s resources were distributed equally, millions of hungry women and children would have food, water and basic humanitarian needs.

Mariam said corruption breeds hatred and is to blame for the anger, proliferation of armed groups and killings in Chad.

Opposition leader and pro-democracy activist Success Masra, who was appointed transitional prime minister in January, said he was the candidate of his Transformers party.

Masra told Chadian state television that he agreed to be a candidate to win back hearts and reunite Chadian citizens.

Transitional President General Mohamed Idriss Deby is the nominee of Chad’s former ruling party, the Movement Patriotic Salvation (MPS), which says he has the support of a coalition of more than 200 opposition parties and about 1,000 civil society groups.

Mbaioji Ghislain, secretary-general of the Union of Chadian Civil Society Groups, said civil society groups believe that if given the chance, Deby will continue to restore peace, stability, security, national harmony and development, as he has done since he came to power three years ago. Do that. After his father passed away a few years ago.

But New Day party national secretary candidate Nasra Djimasngar and Bruce Mbaimon of the Patriot Movement of the Republic of Chad said Deby was manipulating civil society groups to stay in power. The pair accuse Deby of stoking political tensions and allowing what they say are ongoing social injustices to spiral into violence in Chad.

Chadian opposition and civil society groups say the election will be held against a very difficult political background following the killing of opposition leader Yaya Dillo. Yaya Dilo is the chairman of the opposition Socialists Without Borders party and Deby’s cousin.

According to the Chadian government, Dilo was killed in a firefight with security forces on February 28. But opposition and civil society groups said Dilow was eliminated because he was widely seen as a serious challenger to Deby.

The Popular Socialist Party denies that Deby is responsible for several crises facing Chad and says a transitional president will hand over power if he loses at the polls.

But opposition candidates said voters should remain vigilant before, during and after voting. They said voters should be prepared to defend their votes and report fraud or irregularities for legal action.

The Central African country’s constitutional council said campaigning for the first round of presidential elections will begin on April 14 and end on May 4.

Chad’s electoral commission said the May 6 presidential election would mark the restoration of constitutional order and the end of the transitional period in Deby, now in its third year.