STORY: On Monday, Chad will become the first in a string of coup-hit states in Central and West Africa to use the ballot box to try to emerge from military rule.

So what's at stake?

This is an election that Chad's Western allies will be watching closely, in a region hit by militant violence, and where Russia is pushing for influence.

"Chad is at a crossroads. Two superpowers are making the Chadian people dance in two volcanoes."

Vincent Payang is a teacher in the capital N'Djamena.

"We know that in our prayers, it is only God who changes times and circumstances."

This election comes amid a battle between the West and Russia for influence in the region.

Following coups in Chad's neighbor Niger as well as Burkina Faso and Mali, the new juntas told traditional allies such as France and other Western powers to leave and instead turned towards Moscow.

Chad is now the last Sahel country with a substantial French military presence.

Underscoring Chad's position, Mahamat Idriss Deby - who adopted the title of interim president after seizing power - met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last year, and in January with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Analysts say regional and Western powers will be pushing for stability and to shore up their positions in the country.

But Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said Chad is an extremely complicated and very fragile place.

"Always Western powers wanted a strongman basically, to keep the country somewhat under control. It makes certain sense - we don't instability in another country, but also many normal Chadians, activists say they're tired of being the victims of this Western-driven stabilisation game. They also want more freedom and more development, which they haven't seen."

Deby - who came to power following the battlefield death of his long-ruling father Idriss Deby - is widely expected to win.

Opposition groups are already crying foul.

That's against a backdrop of increasing concerns over human rights in what is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Deby initially promised an 18-month transition but his government later adopted resolutions to postpone elections and allow him to run for the presidency.

Subsequent protests were violently quelled by security forces.

Around 50 civilians were killed.

And another death, opposition figure Yaya Dillo.

He was shot and killed in N'Djamena on February 28, the day the election date was announced.

The opposition has called Dillo's death an assassination and forensic experts have said he was likely shot at point-blank range.

Chadian authorities said he was killed during an exchange of fire with security forces who had been sent to detain him for alleged involvement in clashes.

Some opposition parties and civil society groups have called for a boycott of the vote.

They say Deby and his allies control the main institutions of power and could influence the process.

Others say a boycott would amount to surrender.

For Gali Doubaye, an unemployed man in N'Djamena, what Chad needs is peace - and for him that means change.

"We've suffered in this country," he says. "Chadian youth are suffering."

"I swear to God, this election has to be transparent."