Chad junta’s main opponents barred from presidential vote

The Opposition accuses the junta of putting up a front of plurality and a democratic poll

Authorities in Chad said on March 24 they had barred 10 candidates, including two fierce opponents of the military regime, from standing in the presidential election on May 6.

The constitutional court said the candidates’ applications — namely those of outspoken opponents Nassour Ibrahim Neguy Koursami and Rakhis Ahmat Saleh — had been rejected because they included “irregularities”.

Ten other candidates remain in the race — most prominently the current junta leader Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and his Prime Minister Succes Masra, a former opponent whose participation has been denounced by the Opposition as a front for plurality.

“It is a candidacy under the pretext that we need other candidates against Deby to say that there is a democratic game,” agreed political scientist Kelma Manatouma of the University of N’Djamena.

Change of stance

General Deby Itno was proclaimed President by a junta of 15 generals in 2021 following the death of his father Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled the Sahel country with an iron fist for more than three decades.

The new President promised to hand power back to a civilian government within 18 months and told the African Union he would not stand for election as President. But he then extended the transition period by two more years and on March 2 officially announced he would run for the top office.

Mr. Masra, a former opposition leader, signed a reconciliation deal with the junta leader earlier this year.

The Opposition says his candidacy is a ploy to give a veneer of pluralism to an election that Mr. Deby Itno is certain to win, since his main rivals are dead or in exile.

The constitutional council also announced it was opening a preliminary investigation for alleged forgery and use of forged documents against Mr. Koursami over suspicions with papers in support of his candidacy.