Page "History of Chad" Paragraph 19

After the war ended local parties started to develop in Chad.

The first to be born was the radical Chadian Progressive Party ( PPT ) in February 1947, initially headed by Panamanian born Gabriel Lisette, but from 1959 headed by François Tombalbaye.

The more conservative Chadian Democratic Union ( UDT ) was founded in November 1947 and represented French commercial interests and a bloc of traditional leaders composed primarily of Muslim and Ouaddaïan nobility.

The confrontation between the PPT and UDT was more than simply ideological ; it represented different regional identities, with the PPT representing the Christian and animist south and the UDT the Islamic north.