Deby Confirms Plan to Run for President in May

Sudan Events – Agencies 

Chad’s military leader has said that he will run in the country’s long-awaited presidential elections in May, just three days after his chief rival was killed in suspicious circumstances.
“I, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, am a candidate for the 2024 presidential election under the banner of the For a United Chad coalition,” Deby said in a speech on Saturday.
The vote will mark the end of three years of military rule in the politically charged Central African country.
Deby took power after his father and longtime ruler, Idriss Deby Itno, died fighting rebels in the country’s north in April 2021.
The younger Deby promised a return to civilian rule, as well as elections, but the leader extended the transition by two years, despite loud objections from opposition parties.
Last week, the country’s elections agency finally announced that the vote would be held on May 6, following a December referendum promising to amend the constitution.
“Mahamat Idriss Deby said it was not his intention to run for president. He said his focus when he took over from his father when he was killed on the front lines was to stabilise Chad, to ensure that the institutions of governance continue as well as to provide peace and stability to the country and the region,” this isnoted from Chad’s capital N’Djamena on Saturday.
“Now, he has been endorsed by a coalition of more than 220 political parties and associations.