{"id":5804,"date":"2026-05-13T02:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/chad-opposition-warns-of-shrinking-democracy"},"modified":"2026-05-14T06:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:22:15","slug":"chad-opposition-warns-of-shrinking-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/chad-opposition-warns-of-shrinking-democracy","title":{"rendered":"Chad Opposition Warns of Shrinking Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>The sentencing of eight leaders from the Chadian opposition coalition known as the &#8220;Political Actors Consultation Group&#8221; (GCAP) to eight years in prison, issued on Friday, May 8, has sparked widespread outrage within political and human rights circles in Chad, amid warnings of a decline in freedoms and a tightening grip on dissenting voices.<\/p>\n<p>Several opposition leaders have expressed increasing concern over what they describe as the shrinking civil and democratic space in the country, considering the trial part of a series of measures targeting political opponents and activists.<\/p>\n<p>The GCAP had previously announced its official withdrawal from political life through a poster displayed outside its headquarters in the capital, N&#8217;Djamena, on October 31, 2025, before permanently closing its party offices, a move observers deemed indicative of rising tensions between the authorities and the opposition.<\/p>\n<p>Alifa Younis Mohammed, coordinator of the Socialist Party Without Borders in Europe, stated that what happened to the coalition leaders &#8220;cannot be considered justice or a fair trial,&#8221; asserting that Chadian authorities are conducting &#8220;a new repression campaign against all dissenting voices.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She added that the country is &#8220;sinking deeper into pure dictatorship, where a single ideology is imposed through fear and repression,&#8221; noting that the judiciary has become, in her view, &#8220;a tool for political manipulation against opponents and advocates for democratic change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The opposition leader also linked these developments to a series of previous events, including the killing of opposition figure Yahya Dilo during a military raid targeting his party&#8217;s headquarters in 2024, as well as the exile of the party&#8217;s Secretary-General, Robert Gam, after months of detention incommunicado.<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Albert Bahimi Padaki, leader of the parliamentary opposition and head of the National Assembly of Chadian Democrats, stated that he was not surprised by the trial&#8217;s outcome, considering that the ruling party, &#8220;National Rescue Movement,&#8221; has been continuing its policy of repression against the opposition since the establishment of the Fifth Republic.<\/p>\n<p>The former Prime Minister added that the country is witnessing &#8220;a frantic march towards imposing a single ideology,&#8221; which he believes reflects &#8220;tension within the authority and a narrowing of its political base,&#8221; creating an atmosphere of fear among opponents. Padaki, who expressed concerns about the possibility of being arrested, said: &#8220;If I say I do not feel afraid, I would be lying.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. The sentencing of eight leaders from the Chadian opposition coalition known as the &#8220;Political Actors Consultation Group&#8221; (GCAP) to eight years in prison, issued on Friday, May 8, has sparked widespread outrage within political and human rights circles in Chad, amid warnings of a decline in freedoms and a tightening grip on dissenting voices. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-5804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policy","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chad Opposition Warns of Shrinking Democracy - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. 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