The presidential race is launched in Chad.

The Prime Minister of the military junta, Succès Masra, announced during a meeting on Sunday March 10 his candidacy for the presidential election on May 6, eight days after that of the transitional president, General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno.

Success Masra, a former opponent, signed a reconciliation agreement with Mahamat Déby before being named Prime Minister on January 1.

The opposition denounces a "pretext candidacy" intended to give a semblance of plurality to a vote that it considers won in advance by Mahamat Déby.

“I am present as a candidate for the presidential election (...) to repair hearts and unite the people,” said this 40-year-old doctor of economics, during an inauguration meeting in front of hundreds of activists. of his party The Transformers.

In response to those who accuse him of having rallied the junta, he replied: "it was an agreement of national reconciliation, an agreement of the brave", "so that our quest for justice is never transformed into a quest for revenge" .

“I am a candidate to be the main pilot of the plane”

“I am a candidate to be the main pilot of the plane” but “you will have to choose the winning combination that you want, who must be pilot and who must be co-pilot”, he retorted to those who suspect him of having negotiated to remain Prime Minister after the election.

Success Masra left his position as a senior official at the African Development Bank (AfDB) to found Les Transformateurs in 2018. 

He was one of the main opponents of Marshal Idriss Déby Itno, killed on April 19, 2021 by rebels while going to the front after 30 years in power.

Then he denounced the "coup d'état" of his son Mahamat Déby, proclaimed head of state the next day by a junta of 15 generals.

The new strongman of N'Djamena had promised to return power to civilians after an 18-month transition and to the African Union (AU) not to run in the elections.

But he extended the transition by two years and announced his candidacy for the presidential election on March 2.

Success Masra organized, with other opposition parties, demonstrations that were banned or systematically repressed.

Until that of October 20, 2022 when hundreds of young people, according to the opposition and international NGOs, were shot and killed by the police, and at least a thousand others imprisoned. 

The government has only recognized around fifty deaths, accusing the demonstrators of “attempted insurrection”.

Success Masra had fled the country.

A candidacy described as a “farce”

He returned there on November 3, 2023, three days after signing a “reconciliation agreement” with the junta amnestying in particular all the demonstrators of October 20, 2022. But also “their killers”, the opposition who accused him was strangled. to “betray” their cause and their own “massacred” activists.

His candidacy is "a farce, a fake candidacy to accompany the head of the military power", says Max Kemkoye, spokesperson for the second opposition platform, the Concertation Group of Political Actors (GCAP).

“A candidacy which aims to support the current president to legitimize his election,” adds Mahamat Zène Chérif, president of the Chad United party, for AFP.

The announcement of Succès Masra also comes 11 days after the death of General Déby's main political rival, his own cousin Yaya Dillo Djerou, killed on February 28 by soldiers in the assault on the headquarters of his Socialist Party without Borders (PSF) . 

“Cosmetic legitimation maneuvers”

With a bullet in the head at point blank range, according to the PSF, an "assassination" intended to exclude him from the presidential race according to the opposition, which the government denies.

“After the assassination of Yaya Dillo, Masra accompanies the government in a process that is flawed in advance, he will remain Prime Minister after the election,” predicts Avocksouma Djona Atchenemou, president of the Democrats party. 

Same story among political scientists.

“It’s a pretext candidacy because we need other candidates against Mahamat Déby to say that there is a democratic game,” analyzes Kelma Manatouma, researcher and professor of political science at the University of N’Djamena.

“A candidacy arranged to propel Masra to the head of a large institution like the National Assembly or other, as a reward after the elections”, wants to believe the constitutionalist Ahmat Mahamat Hassan.

“There has never been a peaceful evolution of power through elections in Chad. Power is won by arms and retained by arms, and all democratic exercises are only cosmetic legitimation maneuvers,” analyzes this political science consultant, evoking the six triumphant elections of Marshal Déby after his coup d'état in 1990, in the face of stooge candidacies often aroused by those in power.

With AFP

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