Ten candidacies for the presidential election in Chad, including those of two fierce opponents of the ruling junta, Nassour Ibrahim Neguy Koursami and Rakhis Ahmat Saleh, were rejected by the Constitutional Council, the institution announced on Sunday March 24. Their files were deemed “non-compliant” and “inadmissible”, notably due to irregularities in the required administrative documents.
Ten candidates are still in the running, including the transitional president, General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, and his prime minister, Succès Masra, a former opponent whose participation is denounced by the opposition as a “pretext candidacy” intended to give a semblance of plurality in a vote that she considers won in advance for Mahamat Déby.
“The government does not want to face credible opposition at the polls,” protested to Agence France-Presse Nassour Ibrahim Neguy Koursami, who had been invested by the GCAP, one of the main platforms of the opposition in Chad. He “only validated the list of candidates who will accompany the head of the junta during the presidential election,” added the opponent. The Constitutional Council announced the opening against him of “a preliminary investigation with a view to criminal prosecution” for “forgery and use of forgery”, due to suspicions regarding supporting documents provided in his candidacy file.
“All the arguments used do not hold water,” declared, for his part, Rakhis Ahmat Saleh, who was the candidate for the Party for Democratic Renewal in Chad (PRDT), denouncing “a real betrayal” and “ maneuvers” of the Constitutional Council to exclude candidates “without valid reason”.
A “masquerade”
“There will be no election, it is in reality a question of choosing candidates who will accompany the head of the junta for the confirmation of the maintenance of power of the dynasty through Kaka [nickname given to Mahamat Déby]”, commented Ahmat Mahamat Hassan, a Chadian constitutionalist. Another of the major opposition platforms in Chad, Wakit Tamma, called on Saturday to boycott the presidential election, criticizing a “masquerade” intended to perpetuate a “dynastic dictatorship”.
In a press release, the platform had notably denounced the organization of the election by the transitional authorities under the leadership of General Mahamat Déby, proclaimed by a military junta president of the transition in April 2021, after the death of his father Idriss Déby Itno, who ruled the country with an iron fist for thirty years. Wakit Tamma had notably described the National Election Management Agency (ANGE) and the Constitutional Council as “bodies of fraud”, “entirely unequal and subservient to the junta”.
The rejection of the candidacy of the main opponents of the junta comes less than a month after the death of General Déby’s main political rival, his own cousin Yaya Dillo Djérou, killed on February 28 by soldiers in the assault on his headquarters. Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF). He was killed by a bullet in the head at close range, according to the PSF, an “assassination” intended to exclude him from the presidential race according to the opposition, which the government denies.
The NGO Human Rights Watch called in early March for an “independent investigation” with “foreign assistance” into “the murder” of Yaya Dillo, arguing that “her death raises serious questions about the political climate in the country as it approaches of the election.” The Chadian Prime Minister, Succès Masra, subsequently promised that an “international type investigation” would be carried out by his government to “determine responsibilities” in the death of the main opponent of the junta.