General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who has commanded Chad’s junta for the past three years, is set to be sworn in on Thursday following a closely disputed election victory in the north-central African nation.
Deby officially won 61% of the vote on May 6, which international NGOs termed neither credible nor free, and which his biggest competitor dubbed a “masquerade.”.
In April 2021, a junta of 15 generals declared him interim ruler after his father, iron-fisted president Idriss Deby Itno, was assassinated by rebels after 30 years in power.
The swearing-in signals the end of three years of military administration in a country critical to the fight against jihadism in Africa’s volatile Sahel area.
In 2021, Deby was soon backed by an international community led by France, whose forces have recently been evicted by military governments in its other former colonies, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
The investiture ritual also formalises what the opposition describes as a Deby dynasty.
Prime Minister Succes Masra, who was one of Deby’s toughest opponents before becoming prime minister, resigned on Wednesday following his party’s election defeat after only four months in government.
Masra, an economist who received 18.5% of the vote, has questioned the results.
He declared victory after the first round of voting but was accused of being a junta stooge by the opposition, which has been severely suppressed in Chad, with its leaders prevented from voting.
After Chad’s Constitutional Council rejected Masra’s attempt to overturn the election, he stated that there was “no other national legal recourse” and urged supporters to “remain mobilised” but “peaceful.”
Yaya Dillo Djerou, Deby’s cousin and the primary opposition candidate to the general, was shot and murdered at point-blank range during an army assault on February 28, according to the party.
The presence of heads of state at the investiture should give an indication of worldwide support for the 40-year-old president.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited N’Djamena in 2021 to pay tribute to the late Marshal Deby before his son and successor, will send Franck Riester, his minister for foreign commerce and Francophonie.
Chad, one of the poorest countries on the planet, is France’s final military presence in the Sahel region, with 1,000 soldiers, and Macron was among the few leaders to congratulate Deby on his election.
Several Sahel countries, struggling with jihadist insurgencies, have developed connections with Russia after cutting ties with Paris.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was among the first to congratulate Deby, and analysts will keenly monitor the size of the group that Moscow sends to N’Djamena for the ceremony.
