Chad junta chief Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno mentioned on Saturday he would run within the Might 6 presidential election, simply three days after his predominant rival was assassinated below murky circumstances.
Deby Itno took energy in 2021 after his father, veteran chief Idriss Deby Itno, died combating rebels. The ruler with an iron fist had dominated the Sahel nation for greater than thirty years.
“I, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, am a candidate for the 2024 presidential elections below the banner of the coalition For a United Chad,” he mentioned in a speech.
Deby Itno had been declared transitional president by the junta and had promised a return to civilian rule and elections inside eighteen months. However he then prolonged the transition by two years.
The date of the presidential election was introduced on Tuesday, simply two months earlier than the vote.
Deby Itno, 39, will nearly actually win as his predominant challenger has been assassinated and the opposition muzzled and suppressed.
On Wednesday, Deby Itno's cousin and predominant political rival, opposition chief Yaya Dillo Djerou, was killed after troops surrounded the workplace of his Socialist Occasion With out Borders within the capital N'Djamena.
His occasion accused troopers of capturing Dillo lifeless at shut vary throughout an “execution” earlier than the presidential election during which he deliberate to problem Deby.
The federal government has rejected the fees, saying Dillo “resisted arrest” and shot at safety forces.
On Saturday, Deby Itno, talking from the Overseas Ministry headquarters, surrounded by troops, mentioned that when he seized energy in 2021, the military had “saved the nation from the abyss and chaos.”
Dressed completely in white, he was cheered by a whole lot of representatives of the political teams that make up the For a United Chad coalition. The coalition claims it consists of “221 events”.
Rights group Human Rights Watch referred to as on Saturday for a foreign-backed unbiased investigation into Dillo's killing.
“The killing of a possible presidential candidate throughout an assault by Chadian safety forces on the headquarters of an opposition occasion raises critical considerations in regards to the surroundings for the elections scheduled for Might 6,” HRW mentioned.
“The circumstances of Yaya Dillo's homicide are unclear, however his violent dying underlines the hazards dealing with opposition politicians in Chad, particularly as elections strategy,” mentioned Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at HRW.
Dillo had advised AFP earlier than his dying that folks needed to “bodily remove” me earlier than the vote.