The electoral commission of Chad he said that the presidential elections which took place on 6 May were won by Mahamat Idriss Déby, general at the head of the military junta which has held power in the country unconstitutionally since 2021. There were not many doubts about Déby’s victory, also because before the vote the military had violently repressed the opposition and they had excluded from the electoral lists their main candidates.
Members of the security forces after an election rally of Mahamat Idriss Déby in N’Djamena, May 4 (EPA/JEROME FAVRE/ansa)
According to the electoral commission, Déby took 61.3 percent of the votes (the threshold to avoid going to a run-off was 50 percent), while the other main candidate, Prime Minister Succès Masra, obtained 18.53 percent. The votes will now have to be validated by the Constitutional Court.
Mahamat Idriss Déby is the son of Idriss Déby Itno, the former president of the country killed in April 2021 in unclear circumstances a few days after a presidential election which confirmed him for the umpteenth time at the helm of Chad with almost ’80 percent of the votes. Mahamat Idriss Déby, who had taken over from his father thanks to the support of the army and ignoring the line of succession indicated by the Chadian Constitution, had dissolved parliament, suspended the Constitution and promised to lead a transitional government for 18 months, until new elections. Since then, however, he had adopted a series of measures to delay the vote until 2024, as well as some measures that had allowed him to run.
A ballot paper (EPA/JEROME FAVRE/ansa)
Since Déby took power, there have been large protests in Chad against the military junta, demanding a return to democracy. However, they have always been repressed, with violence and intimidation towards opposition politicians. On February 28, 2024, Yaya Dillo, one of the main opposition leaders and cousin of Mahamat Idriss Déby, was killed along with 12 other people during an army attack on his party headquarters. A few days later Mahamat Idriss Déby announced his candidacy for the presidential elections.
Success Masra vote in N’Djamena, 6 votes (EPA/CHANCELLOR MBAIRAMADJI MOITA/ansa)
Succès Masra, on the other hand, is a politician who had once been in the opposition and returned to Chad on 3 November 2023 after a year of exile: on 1 January 2024 he was appointed head of government following a political agreement reached with the military junta and much criticized by its former allies and supporters.
There were conflicting opinions on his candidacy: on the one hand the opposition and part of civil society accused him of being a fake candidate to give the illusion that the presidential elections were more competitive, but above all democratic; on the other hand, according to some, Masra’s fake presence would instead have transformed over time into a real candidacy. Thanks also to the crowds who came to attend his electoral meetings, especially in the south of the country, at a certain point in the electoral campaign Masra had in fact taken a much more decisive tone against Mahamat Idriss Déby, increasing the attacks and criticism towards him.