The result fell.

A national dialogue in Chad definitively "designated" General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno on Saturday (October 8th) as president of an extended two-year "transition" towards "transparent" elections, 18 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 succession" to power, as well as by some of the most powerful armed rebel movements.

The Sovereign and Inclusive National Dialogue (DNIS) also endorsed the possibility of Mahamat Idriss Déby running for president at the end of the transition, despite a promise to the contrary made 18 months ago to the international community – African Union, European Union and France in the lead – who dubbed him then.

>> To read also: "Burkina, Guinea, Chad, Mali ... Update on the democratic transitions in progress"

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, reported an AFP journalist. .

"New transitional phase"

He expressed his "pride" in front of these "assizes" which made it possible to "get out of the horror scenario", promising in particular "a new phase of the transition" devoted to "achieving the deadlines prescribed for the return to order constitutional".

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 then already promised "free and democratic elections" at the end of an 18-month transition renewable once, after having dissolved parliament and government and repealed the Constitution.

A week ago, the DNIS adopted "by consensus" various resolutions including the 24-month extension of the transition with Mr. Déby as president, his future eligibility, the dissolution of the CMT and a "reconciliation" government to be appointed – and possibly revoked – by the Head of State.

Wearing his general's fatigues and the red beret of the presidential guard, the elite unit he commanded when his father died, Mr. Déby arrived at the Palace of January 15 waving to the crowd with his baton of command. of the sunroof of an armored SUV surrounded by soldiers.

The opposition denounces a "carnival"

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 then joined the DNIS, to release "prisoners of war".

He had hundreds of them released but kept others in prison, in particular 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 the FACT, had castigated in advance on Friday a "carnival (...) which only legitimizes dynastic succession and perpetuating a corrupt regime".

>> To (re) read: "National dialogue in Chad: debates that last and an election that is moving away"

Mahamat Déby "had made the promise not to stand for election after the transition and it is 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 recalled unequivocally that no member of the Transitional Military Council could be a candidate in the elections at the end of the transition", two commitments nevertheless made by Mr. Déby when he took power.

A denial which 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 breaks a "lock put in place by the AU".

Asked by AFP, the AU did not react to the measures adopted by the DNIS, which is often accused of "lacking rigor" in the Chadian file, pointed out Mr. Marchal.

The European Union had also expressed a week ago its "concern", regretting that the DNIS resolutions "do not take into account" the commitments of the junta "relating to the duration of the transition and to the clause of ineligibility."

With AFP

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