Chad’s court approves Déby and other 9 candidates, bars his key opponents from presidential vote

Chad’s authorities have announced they had cleared 10 candidates, including the country’s interim president and the recently-appointed prime minister, for the long-awaited elections scheduled for 6 May, while barring two fierce opponents of the military regime from standing.

Chad’s Constitutional Court said Sunday (24 March) the applications of outspoken opponents Nassour Ibrahim Neguy Koursami and Rakhis Ahmat Saleh had been rejected because they included “irregularities”, including alleged forgery and use of forged documents. Ten other candidates remain in the race, most prominently the current junta leader and interim President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno and his Prime Minister Succes Masra. General Déby Itno rose to power in 2021 following the death of his father Idriss Déby Itno, who had ruled the Sahel country with an iron fist for more than three decades.
The new president originally promised to hand power back to a civilian government within 18 months, pledging he would not stand for election as president, but he later extended the transition period by two more years and recently announced he would in fact run for the top office. Wakit Tamma, another of the main opposition platforms in the west African nation, has called for a boycott of the presidential election, denouncing it as a “masquerade” aimed at upholding a “dynastic dictatorship”. It comes only weeks after General Deby’s main rival Yaya Dillo Djerou was shot dead under suspicious circumstances in an army assault on his PSF party headquarters.