Chad’s transitional leader, Mahamat Idriss Déby, confirmed his candidacy for the upcoming May 6 presidential vote on Saturday, just three days following the mysterious death of his chief rival. Déby ascended to power in 2021 following the demise of his father, veteran leader Idriss Déby Itno, during clashes with rebels.
“I, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, am a candidate for the 2024 presidential election under the banner of the ‘For a United Chad coalition’,” he declared in a speech.
Déby, aged 39, assumed the role of the country’s transitional president in 2022, pledging a transition to civilian rule and elections. However, he later extended the transition by two years. With his main challenger eliminated and the opposition subdued and oppressed, Déby appears poised to secure victory in the May 6 vote.
Addressing the public from the foreign ministry headquarters on Wednesday, surrounded by troops, Déby asserted that when he assumed power in 2021, the army had “saved the country from the abyss and from chaos.” Clad in all white, he received cheers from numerous representatives of the political factions comprising his coalition, For a United Chad, which claims to encompass “221 parties.”
Déby’s announcement coincides with the recent demise of his principal opponent, who was killed in an army operation in the capital N’Djamena. Yaya Dillo Djerou, a cousin of the transitional president, perished on Wednesday after troops besieged the office of his Socialist Party Without Borders. His party accused soldiers of executing Dillo at close range in anticipation of the May 6 election, where he intended to contest. The government refuted the allegations, asserting that Dillo “resisted his arrest” and opened fire on security forces.
Human Rights Watch urged for an independent investigation, supported by foreign entities, into Dillo’s demise. The circumstances surrounding Dillo’s killing remain murky, raising significant apprehensions about the electoral environment ahead of the scheduled May 6 elections, according to HRW Central Africa director Lewis Mudge.
(AFP)
