(Adds details, context, quotes) By Betel Miarom N'DJAMENA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Chad's ruling presidential majority and opposition parties signed a deal on Monday to create an independent elections commission and delay parliamentary elections due in December by two years. The political parties, representing a broad range of affiliations, also called on President Idriss Deby's government and armed rebels operating in the east to resolve their differences through peaceful negotiation. "The agreement signed this Monday is a code of good conduct for political life in Chad," Deby said after a signing ceremony. "The great challenge is to translate these commitments into actions, because the Chadian people will now have their eyes firmly on the political parties to see their expectations are realised," he said. The CPDC coalition whose members signed Monday's agreement includes the major political opposition parties in the former French colony, but not armed groups fighting a cat and mouse campaign against the army in the east, where unrest and ethnic violence has spread across the border from Sudan's Darfur. Rebel representatives have taken part in Libyan-sponsored talks in Tripoli that have yet to reach a deal. The opposition parties had previously demanded any round table negotiations with Deby's presidential majority be open to armed rebel groups, but they later dropped that demand and began talks on how to defuse a long-running political crisis. Opponents have accused Deby's administration of running unfair elections in the past. The former army officer seized power in a coup in 1990 and changed the constitution in 2005 to remove a two-term limit, allowing him to stand for re-election last year in polls the main opposition boycotted. Monday's accord provides for the creation of a National Independent Electoral Commission with 15 members from Deby's presidential majority, 15 from the opposition, plus a president appointed by common consent. It also foresees the wholesale reform of Chad's constituency system with parliamentary and local council seats allocated on the basis of a new electoral census, requiring parliamentary elections scheduled for December to be put back to late 2009. "There won't be an excessive number of National Assembly deputies; they will be allocated on a realistic calculation of the number of people," the agreement states. The accord also makes concessions to opposition demands, specifying the use of a single ballot paper. In another change intended to reduce the potential for abuse, it also stipulated that the country's many nomads, who normally cast their ballots ahead of the main election at mobile polling stations set up in the desert, should all vote on the same day as the rest of the population. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Hancock)
