Prime Minister Succès Masra affirmed Thursday that he had won “victory in the first round” of Monday’s presidential election in Chad, before the announcement of the official results expected in the evening.
The compilation of the results by his own camp “confirms the victory in the first round, that of change over the status quo”, announced Mr. Masra in a long speech on his Facebook page. “The victory is resounding and unblemished,” he proclaimed.
The electoral commission is due to announce the official results in the evening.
In his speech, Mr. Masra also affirmed that the camp of candidate and general Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, proclaimed head of state three years ago by the army, would announce that the latter had “won” the presidential election and thus trying to “steal victory from the people”.
“Chadians, mobilize peacefully, calmly (…) to prove your victory,” he said.
This election must mark the end of a three-year military transition and many observers believed that just 10 days ago it was a foregone conclusion in favor of the young 40-year-old general.
But the economist Masra, also 40 years old, surprised everyone by gathering considerable crowds during his campaign, to the point of becoming emboldened and saying he was capable of winning, if not of pushing Mr. Déby as far as a second round scheduled for June 22.
The president of ANGE Ahmed Bartchiret announced Thursday afternoon that the provisional results of the vote would be announced in the evening, from 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT).
The early announcement of the results, 12 days ahead of the official schedule, leaves room for speculation. Especially since the Masra camp has been ostensibly engaged in its own vote count since the evening of the counting, alongside the only authorized one, that of the National Election Management Agency (ANGE), composed and appointed by the military power.
On Monday, eight other candidates competed against MM. Déby and Masra, but as they were little known or not considered hostile to power, they had no chance of winning more than a few votes.
– “Pilot and co-pilot” –
As soon as his candidacy was announced, Masra indicated that he was participating to perpetuate the current crew of “pilot and co-pilot” (Mr. Déby and him, Editor’s note) of a plane in flight “towards democracy”.
His former allies from an opposition very violently repressed and muzzled for three years accused him of being a “traitor” rallied to the junta and denounced a candidacy supposed to give a “democratic veneer” to an election “predicted in advance” in favor of the general, in order to prolong a “Déby dynasty” almost 34 years old.
After 30 years of ruling Chad with an iron fist, Marshal Idriss Déby Itno was killed by rebels in April 2021 on his way to the front, and the army immediately proclaimed his son Mahamat Transitional President at the head of a junta of 15 generals.
Three years later, the young general tried to legitimize his presidency at the polls. Many observers predicted until recently that it would be a formality, as for his father, officially elected and re-elected comfortably six times after his 1990 coup.
But international NGOs have expressed doubts about an election “neither free nor credible” after the junta had violently repressed, even bloodily, all opposition and removed General Déby’s most serious rivals from the presidential race.
– “Murdered” –
One of them, Mahamat Déby’s own cousin and his fiercest opponent, Yaya Dillo Djérou, was killed on February 28 by soldiers who had stormed his party headquarters. The opposition assures that he was “assassinated”, “shot in the head at point blank range”.
The existence of a “system of fraud for several elections” would have pushed Mr. Masra’s camp to distrust the ANGE, responsible for counting the votes, assures AFP an executive of the party of Mr. Masra, who requires anonymity.
In tune with the rest of the opposition which called for a boycott of the vote, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) was concerned on May 3 about an “election which seems neither credible, nor free, nor democratic”, “in a deleterious context marked by (…) the multiplication of human rights violations”.
On Wednesday, Mr. Masra’s Les Transformateurs party denounced “serious threats” against its leader and his supporters as well as “violence and arbitrary arrests” against the latter since the election, as well as fraud. And called on “the people” to “defend their will expressed at the ballot box”.
