The announcement was hasty, but the results were expected. On the evening of Thursday, May 9, about 10 days before the legal deadline and when the Constitutional Court had only just received copies of the polling stations' reports, Chad's National Agency for Election Management (ANGE) proclaimed Mahamat Idriss Déby's victory in the first round of the presidential election, with 61.03% of the vote.
The transitional president, brought to power by a group of generals following the April 2021 death of his father, Idriss Déby, was well ahead of his main opponent Succès Masra (18.53%), who became prime minister thanks to a political agreement. Coming in third, the former prime minister Albert Pahimi Padacké (16.91%) was quick to congratulate the winner.
"Everyone knows that these figures have been fabricated," stated an irritated executive from Masra's Transformers party, who described the results as a "masquerade" and "witchcraft." Shortly before the results were announced, as he saw the election slipping away from him, Prime Minister Masra tried to catch the electoral body off guard by proclaiming himself the winner: "We won on May 6 [date of the first round] with the vision of Chad still on its feet," he declared in an address to the nation, broadcast live on social media.
Throughout his campaign, the opponent had called on his supporters to check the results of the ballot boxes by taking photos of the count sheets, instilling a climate of suspicion in a campaign that turned out to be more offensive than expected. ANGE countered with the threat of legal action in the event of public disorder. "A small number of individuals have decided to oppose the will of the majority," Masra said on Thursday evening, before accusing the electoral institution of wanting to "reverse the order of things and the order of numbers."
"Any proclamation outside ANGE is illegal," retorted Infrastructure Minister and ruling party executive Aziz Mahamat Saleh. In a short time, an impressive military presence was deployed to cordon off N'Djamena.
Celebrations with bursts of gunfire
The announcement of the results was followed by automatic gunfire from all over the city. In the city center, vehicles sped off to the joyful sounds of car horns and ululations. In the southern districts of N'Djamena, reputed to be pro-opposition, these celebrations were seen as a sign of intimidation. Contacted by Le Monde, several Masra supporters, holed up in their homes, spoke of their "sadness," "disappointment" and "concern" for the days ahead.
Activists from the Coalition pour un Tchad Uni (Coalition for a United Chad), led by the Mouvement Patriotique du Salut (Patriotic Salvation Movement), an electoral steamroller founded by former president Idriss Déby and which supported his son's candidacy, gathered to celebrate at the premises of their respective organizations. "We won in the first round by a knockout! The party's going to go on until the wee hours!" Ali Ouardougou said enthusiastically, with a yellow scarf around his neck. In the middle of everything, a man in his 50s, with an assault rifle in one hand and an automatic pistol in the other, staggered as he fired shots, sometimes in the air, sometimes at the ground. "What can I say, that's how we celebrate," said an amused Abdel-Nasser Garboa, the organization's vice president.
"He's a young president, he embodies development, progress and stability. Look at the chaos in neighboring countries, whereas in Chad there is no terrorism," said Alatchi Diguédé Tchémi, smiling broadly. The stability of this country with a population of 17 million, one of the poorest in the world, has been Déby's key argument throughout the campaign: The 40-year-old officer who believes he saved Chad from chaos, by taking power at the head of a junta, when his father was killed during fighting with rebels, in April 2021, after three decades of authoritarian rule supported by France.
The junta then promised to return power to civilians, before an "inclusive and sovereign national dialogue," held in fall 2022, extended the 18-month transition and authorized Déby to run for the highest office in the land, provoking an outcry from civil society. The opposition criticized this as a "dynastic succession" of power.
Attempting to appease
While the transitional president has succeeded in silencing – at least temporarily – the threat of the rebel groups who for decades had tried to overthrow his father, and in reducing the political weight of his opponents by appointing them to positions of responsibility, his first three years at the head of the country have been marked by several episodes of bloody repression.
On October 20, 2022, between 73 and 300 demonstrators, depending on the source, demanding the handover of power to civilians, were killed by law enforcement personnel. On February 28, 2024, opposition politician Yaya Dillo, also a cousin of the transitional president, was killed when the army stormed his party's headquarters in the center of the capital.
Today, many fear that a political crisis could trigger a new bloodbath. "I am now the elected president of all Chadians," said Déby a few hours after the proclamation of his victory, as if to try and calm spirits. Masra's words, calling on Chadians to "mobilize peacefully for the truth [spoken in] the ballot boxes," could open a period of uncertainty. On Friday morning, no mobilization was reported in the capital, which was still under close surveillance by the armed forces.