Chad: with the proclaimed electoral victory Mahamat Deby “legitimizes” his role at the helm of the country

The outcome of the presidential elections which took place in Chad on Monday 6 May does not bring with it any particular surprises, except for the early timing with which the results were released, although still provisional. According to what was announced by the electoral commission, in fact, the military leader and self-proclaimed transition president Mahamat Idriss Deby won in the first round with over 61 percent of the vote, ahead of Prime Minister Succes Masra (18.5 percent) and to former prime minister Albert Pahimi Padacké (16.9 percent). “Now I am the elected president of all Chadians,” the son of the late president Idriss Deby declared in a very short televised speech overnight, promising to keep his commitments. According to official data, the elections recorded a high voter turnout, estimated at over 75.8 percent. It will now be up to the Constitutional Council to validate these figures.

The election result offers Deby junior the sought-after opportunity to legitimize his role at the helm of the country. Chad’s strongman since April 2021, when his father Idriss was killed in battle by the rebels of the Front for the Alternation and Harmony of Chad (Fact), Mahamat Deby had taken over the reins of the country by establishing a military junta and not delivering – as provided for by the Constitution – the powers of the president of parliament. A move that came in the wake of several coups d’état in the sub-Saharan and Sahelian belt and which had less international resonance than other actions of force. In particular, France’s lack of condemnation was striking, as its president Emmanuel Macron attended Idriss Deby’s funeral in N’Djamena before receiving his son in Paris twice in the following months.

Conducting the vote, however, took place in an atmosphere that was anything but serene. After the results were announced, in the capital N’Djamena some soldiers shot into the air to celebrate, causing some injuries. Furthermore, shortly before the announcement of the commission, the outgoing prime minister Masra claimed his victory which he defined as “sensational and without blemish”, after which in the first hours of the counting press sources close to the prime minister had given him a clear advantage in the most major cities in the country. Meanwhile, several members of the opposition have contested fraud and irregular voting procedures: among them the candidate Mansiri Lopsikreo, who joined the voices of irregularities at the polling stations, in particular in relation to missing ballot papers and reports of electoral officials who prevented some to exercise the right to vote. The outcome of the vote also saw two deaths: a 65-year-old voter was shot dead in Moundou, the country’s second city, by unidentified armed men who broke into the polling station and opened fire, while in Abeché (in the East) a law enforcement officer was stabbed to death by a voter.

During the voting process, The US government has made it known that it is committed to monitoring the electoral process in Chad. “Once the Chadian authorities have completed all internal processes related to the elections, we will work to discuss the future of our security cooperation,” a spokesperson for the United States Security Command told “Agenzia Nova” Africa (Africom), in the context of the feared withdrawal of Western forces imposed by numerous coup juntas in the Sahel and the related Russian penetration into the region. In this regard, the presence in Deby’s electoral teams during the counting of the ballots of two men from the Wagner group (now renamed Africa Corps) known for being decisive pawns in Moscow’s electoral propaganda and disinformation activities in various African countries is not without significance : the Russian sociologist Maksim Shugaley and his collaborator Samer Sueifan, already active in similar contexts in Libya, the Central African Republic or here in Chad.

Shugaley himself made this known with a photo published on Telegram, in which he is seen portrayed, together with Sueifan, in the company of one of Deby’s electoral teams. “Voting for the presidential elections in Chad has concluded. The winner it’s obvious. I had the honor of observing the work of the Mahamat Deby election headquarters,” Shugaley writes, stating that the elections “were democratic and competitive.” “N’Djamena is plastered with posters of different candidates, rallies have been held, people have gone there, the police are everywhere, but no one touches the voters,” continues the sociologist, for whom “the United States has tried to interfere in the elections, but they failed.” Shugaley says he has information according to which Washington intends to “work to destabilize the situation in the country after the elections”, underlining that the US “does not like the French in Chad”, in the belief that Paris has “robbed the country for many years and did not allow it to develop.” “Chad definitely needs new international partners,” he concludes.

Considered a close friend of Prighozin – who died last August in the crash of a plane after an attempted revolt against the Kremlin – Shugaley has been subject to European Union sanctions since 25 February 2023 and is considered a decisive cog in Russian propaganda in Africa also for the activity carried out in framework of the Association for Free Research and International Cooperation (Afric), an organization equally subject to sanctions by the US Treasury for its proven role as a front company for Prigozhin’s influence operations “through false election monitoring missions in Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Mozambique”.

Related posts