Chad’s military junta leader for three years, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, officially became president on Thursday, despite opposition objections to the election process.
Deby was officially declared the winner with 61 percent of the May 6 vote, in an election deemed neither credible nor free by international NGOs and labelled a “masquerade” by his main rival.
When he took the oath of office, Deby said he swore “before the Chadian people… to fulfil the high functions that the nation has entrusted in us.”
At the Palace of Arts and Culture in the capital, N’Djamena, eight African heads of state, Constitutional Council members, and numerous guests observed the 40-year-old’s inauguration as president as he donned his customary white boubou.
In an earlier speech, he declared a “return to constitutional order” and promised to represent all Chadians, regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs.
Deby was declared the interim president in April 2021 by a council of 15 generals following the assassination of his father, long-time authoritarian leader Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled for 30 years.
The swearing-in signifies the end of three years of military control in a nation pivotal to the effort against jihadism in Africa’s troubled Sahel region.
The term of the presidency lasts for five years and may be renewed for one more term.
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