Mahamat “Kaká” Déby obtained 61.03% of the votes, compared to 18.53% obtained by Succès Masra. The army detachment, “The Transformers”, fired several shots into the air, in an apparent sign of joy.
Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno was declared the winner of the presidential elections in Chad, three years after taking power at the head of a military junta, but his defeated prime minister questions the young general’s victory.
According to the official results of the National Electoral Management Agency (ANGE), headed by the head of the military junta in power, Mahamat “Kaká” Déby obtained 61.03% of the votescompared to the 18.53% obtained by Succès Masra, also 40 years old.
Eight other candidates obtained very weak votes, with the exception of former Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacké, who officially obtained 16.91% of the votes.
TO The official participation rate was 75.89%.. These figures, announced in N’Djamena this Thursday around 10 p.m. (the same time in Lisbon), but long before the official forecast, which pointed to the 21st, still must be validated by the Constitutional Council, also made up of figures designated by the head of the board.
Shortly after the results were announced, an army detachment stationed in the neighborhood where the “Les Transformateurs” (The Transformers) party of Succès Masra is based fired several shots into the air, in an apparent sign of joy, but evidently also with the objective of discouraging any gathering of peopleespecially since the opposition leader had already announced his victory, justified by a recount of votes carried out by his own party.
According to journalists from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) present at the scene, Some people ran to hide in their homes and the streets quickly became deserted..
On the other hand, next to the presidential palace, many Kaká Déby supporters celebrated the victory. There also the soldiers and civilians showed their joy by shooting into the air with Kalashnikov machine guns.
Masra claimed victory on Thursday hours before the official results were announced, in a long speech on the social network Facebook, in which accused Mahamat Déby’s side of having manipulated the results to announce the general’s victory.
Citing a compilation of vote counts carried out by his own followers, Masra called on Chadians to “not allow victory to be stolen from them (…) by mobilizing peacefully but firmly.”
“I am now the elected president of all Chadians,” declared Kaká Déby in a very brief and monotonous speech broadcast on television, promising to fulfill his “commitments.”
These elections are intended to mark the end of a three-year military transition, prepared to legitimize the young general, son of former dictator Idriss Déby Itno – supposedly murdered on the front against rebel groups -, proclaimed leader of a military junta of 16 generals in April 20, 2021.
A fierce critic of the Déby dynasty, Succès Masra, fled the country in October 2022, following the violent repression of protests that followed the announcement of the extension of the transition process, but ended up joining Mahamat Déby in January of this year, being appointed prime minister four months before the elections.
The rest of the opposition, gagged and violently repressed, sometimes with Physical elimination of their leaders.He accuses Masra of being a “traitor” and of presenting himself as a presidential candidate to “give a democratic and pluralist veneer” to elections that have always been a fact for Déby.
Although, Masra surprised many people during his campaign, gathering large crowds.
Mahamat Déby had the support of the army from the beginning of its installationin April 2021, by an international community – led by France – that was quick to condemn coup plotters in other parts of Africa.
Paris still maintains a thousand soldiers in Chad, considered a pillar in the fight against Islamic extremists in the Sahel, after French soldiers were expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Source: Observadora
