2024-05-07 19:12:15
The European Union (EU) deplored on Tuesday in Chad the exclusion of 2,900 civil society observers, which it said harms the “transparency” of the presidential election the day before, called into question by the opposition and international NGOs.
The latter had already expressed doubts regarding its “credibility” and the transparency of an election which they judged, in tune with the opposition, decided in advance in favor of General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, proclaimed head of state by the army three years ago, upon the death of his father’s president.
The presidential election, supposed to put an end to three years of military power, pitted him once morest a former opponent, Succès Masra, who joined the junta and was appointed Prime Minister by the general on January 1, in an unprecedented duel.
On Sunday, four Chadian civil society organizations, including the Chadian Human Rights League (LTDH), protested once morest the refusal of the electoral commission to issue accreditations to 2,900 of their members for “the observation of the ballot”, despite requests being submitted “within the required deadlines”.
“Transparency”
“The EU in Chad deplores the non-accreditation of these civil society organizations.” “In doing so”, the electoral commission, whose members were appointed by Mr Déby, “prevented their contribution to the transparency of the electoral process, financed to the tune of 3.8 million euros, with European funds”, regretted the EU in Chad on its Facebook page.
We “supported a Chadian citizen observation with EU funds,” Sona Jarosova, head of the EU political mission in Chad, told AFP.
On Tuesday, the day following the vote, the candidates’ staff, who stayed up all night to follow the counting in N’Djamena, were either unavailable or refused to comment on the vote. As did the leaders of what remains of the opposition, in the country or in forced exile, who did not wish to speak for the moment.
Activists and supporters from both camps explained that the long night at polling stations and the exceptionally stifling heat wave affecting Chad like much of Africa forced them to stay at home until the evening.
violent repression
The opposition, repressed, sometimes bloodily, for three years, and whose most dangerous candidates for Mr. Déby were excluded from the race, had called for a boycott of a vote intended, according to it, to “perpetuate a Déby dynasty ” 34 years old.
She considers Mr. Masra a “traitor” whose candidacy only aimed to give a “democratic veneer” to the vote. But the latter attracted considerable crowds during his campaign, to the point of now claiming victory.
On Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) was concerned regarding an “election which seems neither credible, nor free, nor democratic”, “in a deleterious context marked by (…) the multiplication of violations human rights”.
The NGO International Crisis Group (ICG) had also expressed “doubts regarding the credibility of the election” following the ouster of candidates from a “muzzled political opposition”.
The official results are scheduled for May 21 and a possible second round on June 22.
General Déby welcomed Tuesday “a turning point in terms of the rooting of democratic culture in Chad.”
“No work, no food”
His Prime Minister Masra wished, on Facebook, “that the counting continues in calm and serenity”.
“I stayed at home. I neither voted for Mahamat (Déby), nor for Succès Masra”, nor any of the eight other candidates, assène, disillusioned, Mohamed Dembélé, motorcycle taxi driver, at the central market from N’Djamena.
“I have a diploma but there is no work, people are tired. We need to eat, even basic food, there is none,” says this 34-year-old man.
Chad, a vast semi-desert state in the Sahel whose economy depends heavily on modest oil production, is the fourth least developed country in the world, according to the UN.
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