A national dialogue in Chad has “appointed” definitively on Saturday General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno president of a “transition“extended for two years towards elections”transparent18 months after he took power at the head of a military junta. This assembly was boycotted by a very large part of the opposition and civil society who denounce a “dynastic successionin power, as well as by some of the strongest armed rebel movements.
The Sovereign and Inclusive National Dialogue (DNIS) also endorsed the possibility of Mahamat Déby running for president at the end of the transition, despite a contrary promise made 18 months ago to the international community — African Union, European Union and France in the lead– who dubbed him then.
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This DNIS, laboriously opened on August 20 after multiple postponements, ended on Saturday in N’Djamena in front of an assistance provided by civilians and soldiers, with a speech by General Déby, 38 years old and five stars, reported a journalist from the AFP. He expressed his “pride” in front of these “sitting“which made it possible to”get out of the horror scenario“, promising in particular”a new phase of the transition» dedicated to «achieve the prescribed deadlines for the return to constitutional order“.
The soldier had already been proclaimed by the army president of the republic on April 20, 2021, at the head of a Transitional Military Council (CMT) of 15 generals, the day of the announcement of the death of his father Idriss Déby. Itno, killed at the front against rebels after reigning with an iron fist over this vast Sahelian country for 30 years. The generals were already promisingfree and democratic electionsat the end of an 18-month transition renewable once, after dissolving parliament and government and repealing the Constitution.
A week ago, the DNIS adopted “by consensus“various resolutions including the 24-month extension of the transition with Mahamat Déby as president, his future eligibility, the dissolution of the CMT and a government”of reconciliationwho will be appointed — and possibly revoked — by the head of state.
“Concern»
Wearing his general’s fatigues and the red beret of the presidential guard, the elite unit he commanded when his father died, Mahamat Déby arrived at the Palace on January 15, waving to the crowd with his baton of command of the sunroof of an armored SUV surrounded by servicemen. He reiterated on Saturday his commitment made in the framework of a peace agreement signed in Doha on August 8 with certain rebel groups, which later joined the DNIS, to release “prisoners of war“. He had hundreds released but kept others in prison, notably those of the Front pour l’Alternance et la Concorde au Tchad (FACT), the most powerful of the armed movements, accused of having killed Déby senior.
The Permanent Framework for Consultation and Reflection (CPCR), an alliance of around twenty rebel groups that shunned Doha and the DNIS, including FACT, had castigated in advance on Friday a “carnival (…) which only legitimizes the dynastic succession and perpetuates a corrupt regime“. Mahamat Deby “had made the promise not to stand for election after the transition and it was on this basis that he had been dubbed by the international community“Reacted for AFP Max Loalngar, coordinator of the opposition platform Wakit Tamma. This platform brings together a very large part of the political opposition and civil society organizations boycotting the DNIS.
The African Union (AU) had demanded on September 19 that the junta not extend the 18 months of transition, “and unequivocally recalled that no member of the Transitional Military Council may be a candidate in the elections at the end of the transition“, two commitments yet made by Mr. Déby when he took power. A denial that plunges Chad’s international partners into embarrassment, according to Roland Marchal, researcher at Sciences Po Paris, “especially concerning the eligibility of those responsible for the transition“which blows up a”lock put in place by AU“.
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Asked by AFP, the AU did not react to the measures adopted by the DNIS, which is often accused of “lacking rigorin the Chadian file, notes Roland Marchal. The European Union also announced a week ago its “concern“, regretting that the resolutions of the DNIS “do not take into account“Commitments of the junta”relating to the duration of the transition and the ineligibility clause.»