Chad approves leader's third term

President Deby: Inaugurated multiparty constitution

Chad's parliament has approved an amendment to the constitution which would allow President Idriss Deby to stand for re-election.

The current constitution only allows the president to stand for two five-year terms, and Mr Deby's second term is due to end in 2006.

Mr Deby's MPS party has a huge majority in parliament and the amendment was passed unanimously.

Opposition parties have called for a national strike in protest.

A BBC correspondent in the capital, Ndjamena, says that the strike call was widely followed, with shops closed and the streets empty.

The constitutional change was first requested last year by the governing Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) and would allow a president to stand for re-election as many times as they wanted, until the age of 70.

The opposition boycotted the vote. It was passed by 123 votes to 0, with one abstention in the 155-seat parliament.

A two-thirds majority is required to change the constitution.

Mr Deby, 52, became leader in 1991 when his MPS rebels took power.

He introduced multi-party democracy in 1996.