The Prime Minister of Chad and candidate for the May 6 presidential election, Succès Masra, during his electoral tour in the south of the country this weekend, called on his activists “ to be the sentinel of the vote » by taking photos of the ballot counting minutes. He immediately attracted the wrath of the National Election Management Agency (Ange) which warned against taking any photo, at the risk of incurring the rigor of the law.
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With our special correspondent in Ndjamena, Esdras Ndikumana
At Chad, the electoral code does not provide for the display of counting reports in polling stations, nor their delivery to candidates’ representatives. The only possibility for candidates to have access to them is that they can obtain these minutes later at the Angel dismemberment, on which the polling station depends. A system that arouses distrust among candidates. It is in this context that Succès Masra, Prime Minister, former opposition leader and opponent of the president-candidate Mahamat Idriss Débycalled his activists “ to be the sentinel of the vote » by taking photos of the ballot counting minutes.
The Transformers therefore said to themselves “ surprised » by this release of the Angel issuing the ban on taking photos. “ It’s about helping to make the presidential election transparent. »: this is how the vice-president of Transformers justifies candidate Succès Masra’s request to his activists to take photos of the results of the vote in their respective polling stations. “ The law provides that the counting be done publicly and the results read aloud “, explains Sitack Yombatina, before wondering what “ scares the Angel to the point of imposing a ban on taking photos in polling stations which was not provided for by the electoral code “.
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The Angel calls to “ trust »
Reaction from the agency responsible for organizing the elections in Chad: “ It was not the Angel who developed the electoral code, but the Angel is responsible for its strict application », insisted to RFI its general rapporteur, Tahir Hassan.
He calls on Chadian citizens to trust them and to wait, “ with complete peace of mind », the moment when this Agency will compile and publish the results of the vote. As for taking photos of the counting minutes in the polling stations, this could cause tension and disorder with the publication of these images on social networks, argued the general rapporteur of the Angel. “ Things must not go in all directions, the situation must remain under control “, he warned.
The political scientist Evariste Ngarlem Toldé fears an election in the process of being “ locked » and warns against a device, which “ could undermine confidence in the count and permanently taint the credibility of the upcoming presidential election “.
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