In Chad, after having adopted on Thursday January 25 by a very large majority the creation of a Constitutional Council responsible in particular for settling future electoral disputes, the CNT, which serves as a provisional parliament, is considering a bill this Friday on the establishment of the National Election Management Agency (Ange).
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If the project is adopted, the agency will be made up of fifteen commissioners chosen for a seven-year mandate, renewable once. This agency will have the difficult task of organizing all electoral operations in the country, starting with the general elections supposed to take place in the next nine months.
But this text is contested by part of the political class. First in terms of methodology. Several Chadian politicians regret that a project of such importance was not the subject of broad consultation with the political class and even civil society. “ Especially since we are in a period of transition », Points out the advisor and president of the URD party, Félix Nialbé.
And basically, it is about “ a half-fig, half-grape text », Analyzes political scientist Remadji Hoinathy. “ The irremovability of the Angel’s commissioners is a guarantee of their independence “, but problem, ” the dice are unfortunately loaded at the base ” since “ out of fifteen commissioners, eight, that is to say the majority, will be designated by the transitional president who will probably be a candidate, and the other seven by the president of the CNT, ex-president of the MPS party who has just chosen Mahamat Idriss Déby as candidate for the next presidential election “.
Impossible to have an independent agency under these conditions according to several politicians. “ As it stands, this project once again confirms the desire to confiscate power by the ruling junta », exclaimed Max Kemkoye. “ We must expect a serious post-election crisis “, he warned.
And if Félix Nialbé says he can live with it, Théophile Bongoro, also an advisor, says he fears the worst, recalling that the CNT is dominated by the MPS and its satellites according to him. Before launching: “ the promised Angel risks becoming a demon if we don’t change the rules of the game “.
As for civil society, it does not hide its concern. Gombo Breye Houzibé is the general rapporteur of the Observatory of Associations on the electoral process in Chad, which is asking for an alternative composition to the Angel:
There is a risk that we will have an electoral institution almost made up of people coming from the same side who will naturally be subject to those who have appointed them and therefore they will not be able to state the law. All the orders he [le président Déby, NDLR] will have to give them, they will execute them to the letter.