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AFP
Chad's main opposition parties announced Monday they had formed a broad alliance to challenge President Idriss Deby Itno's ruling party in the central African state's first local polls.

Sixteen of Chad's main opposition parties -- grouped under the Coordination of Political Parties for the Defence of the Constitution (CPDC) umbrella -- will field joint candidates in the January 22 election.

"I am pleased to say that the democratic opposition, which includes 16 parties, will have joint lists" in 32 of the 42 municipalities where polls are to be held, CPDC spokesman Saleh Kebzabo told AFP.

"This country's fraud experts should consider this a warning that the opposition will not allow any tampering to take place with the results," he said.

No international observers will monitor the ballot.

Four other political parties formed another grouping that will also field joint candidates in several of the 42 local contests.

Deby -- who has ruled Chad since 1990 -- was reelected in April 2010 with 83 percent of the vote. His Patriotic Salvation Movement won an absolute majority in parliament two months earlier.

The opposition said both elections were rigged.

The January 22 election, which was rescheduled five times, will be the first of its kind in Chad, where mayors were until now appointed directly by the central executive in N'Djamena.