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The Central African country's presidential election is scheduled to be held in May.
Authorities in Chad have approved 10 candidates for this year's long-awaited presidential election, barring two staunch opponents of the military government from running.
Chad's Constitutional Council announced on Sunday that outspoken opposition figures Nassour Ibrahim Negui Koursamy and Rakhis Ahmet Saleh would be banned.
It said their applications were rejected because they contained “irregularities”.
The council said it had accepted the nominations of interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby and the country's recently appointed Prime Minister Sousse Masra.
The first round of presidential elections in the Central African country is scheduled for May 6 and the second round for June 22, with provisional results to be declared on July 7.
The elections are part of Chad's return to democracy from rule by the military government, one of several currently in power in West and Central Africa.
There have been eight coups in the region since 2020, raising concerns of democratic decline.
This is the first time in the history of Chad that the President and the Prime Minister will face each other in the presidential elections.
Deby initially promised an 18-month transition in elections after seizing power in 2021 after her long-ruling father was killed in clashes with rebels.
But his government later adopted proposals that would have postponed elections until 2024 and allowed him to run for president, sparking protests that were violently suppressed by security forces.
In December, Chadians voted in favor of a new constitution, which critics said could help solidify Déby's grip on power because it would allow him to run for president.
Debbie confirmed her intention to run earlier this month.
Massara, previously a staunch opponent of Chad's military rulers, fled the country in October 2022 after dozens of people were killed in a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations in the capital N'Djamena.
He returned in November after a reconciliation agreement was signed, which guaranteed him the ability to participate in political activities.
Since then, many opposition parties have distanced themselves from Masra.
call for boycott
Wakit Tamma, one of the main opposition platforms in Chad, called on Saturday for a boycott of the presidential vote, calling it a “pretext” aimed at perpetuating a “dynastic dictatorship.”
The ban on opposition candidates comes less than a month after General Déby's main rival Yaya Dillou Djeru was shot dead in an army attack on his PSF party headquarters.
In early March, Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation into the killing of Dillo, arguing that the army attack “raises serious concerns about the environment for the elections in May”.
Prime Minister Massara later promised that his government would conduct an international investigation to determine responsibility for the death of the military government's main opponent.