For Succès Masra, “France’s attitude constitutes a brake on our democratic process”

In an interview given to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday, November 21, the opposition Succès Masra, who intends to boycott the legislative and municipal elections of December 29 in Chad, denounces a “masquerade” and accuses Paris of “brake” the democratic process through its support for President Mahamat Idriss Déby.

“No one wanted to learn the lessons of the presidential election, which was already a complete robbery, and we are heading towards a repeated repeat of these elections”denounces the former prime minister and failed candidate for the supreme office. He believes he has largely won against Déby, proclaimed head of state after the death of his father in 2021 and elected president on May 6 after a judged vote. “neither free nor credible” by international NGOs.

For these first legislative elections in the country since 2015, “We find ourselves with a field facing itself”he stated, as President Déby’s Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) faces off against his allies in the United Chad coalition, who had supported his election. Masra also denounces the new electoral division decided in mid-August, which consists of “reduce the electoral weight of the most populated provinces to favor the less populated ones”. The leader of the opposition party Les Transformateurs would have wanted a postponement of the legislative elections until 2025 to allow the approximately 2 million people affected by the floods (576 dead since July) “vote in good conditions”.

While in Paris, he met with advisors to President Emmanuel Macron to tell them “pass a message” : “France’s attitude constitutes a brake on our democratic process. » In question, Paris’ eagerness to congratulate his son Déby after the announcement of his victory in May, “without any proof and although we never received the results files or copies of the minutes”. “The minimum would have been to remain neutral, but France clearly chose a family to the detriment of the Chadian people, who wanted change”continues Mr. Masra.

Unconditional support

In the past, French authorities have often been criticized for their unwavering support for Marshal Idriss Déby Itno, who ruled Chad with an iron fist for more than thirty years before being assassinated by rebels on his way to the front. Emmanuel Macron was immediately nicknamed “Kaká”, as Chadians nickname his son, appointed by a junta to succeed him. Mr Macron recently “recalled the importance for France of the privileged partnership it maintains with Chad”.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, will travel on November 27 to N’Djamena, France’s last military anchor in the Sahel, where Paris maintains several hundred soldiers and three military bases.

For the success of Masra, “It is a big mistake to favor the so-called political and institutional stability by helping the “strong man” to stay in power” and ignoring the bloody and repeated repression that the opposition and human rights activists have suffered for three years. According to him, this shows the ” weakness “ french people, “Ready for anything” to continue enjoying the favor of the Chadian regime, courted by other powers.

N’Djamena recently strengthened its cooperation with Russia, in particular for the purchase of military equipment, and turned to the United Arab Emirates, which granted it a loan of 500 million dollars, a figure “disguised retribution” according to critics of the regime, to facilitate arms deliveries to the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) in the war against the army of General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane in neighboring Sudan.

“With this logic, the most armed wins. Except it solves nothing if these leaders have no democratic legitimacy and are questioned even within their own ranks.”Masra says, pointing to divisions within the presidential clan and the threat of multiple rebel groups ravaging the country. “It is even dangerous, look where this has led Sudan, to have “strong men”: in the end everyone defeats each other, the country falls apart, there will be no winner. »