An Election in the Desert

Tomorrow, Chad will hold its long-awaited presidential election. Many are feeling disgruntled.

Scouring through a quaint bookshop in Edinburgh some time ago, I stumbled upon Au-delà des sables: le Tchad / Beyond the Desert: Chad by Alain Denis. Obviously, I bought it. I couldn’t resist such a bargain. The 1989 photo book contains pictures showcasing Chad’s wildlife, natural beauty, cityscapes, villages and people. If there’s one takeaway, the desert certainly has a way of reflecting sunlight. 

A year or so after the book’s publication, Idriss Déby Itno took power in Chad through a military coup, entering the capital N’Djamena unopposed on 3 December 1990. During his 30-year rule, Chadians’ democratic liberties and freedom of expression were suppressed. The opposition was heavily marginalised, with some leaders even killed.

Chad has been ravaged by civil wars since its independence from France in 1960. Déby’s ascendancy only temporarily stabilised tensions. In 2006, he amended the constitution to grant himself greater powers, triggering several allies to rebel against him. The ensuing conflict lasted until 2010, and Chad continues to be plagued by internal strife, including clashes with armed opposition groups, Boko Haram and Sudanese militias. 

Tomorrow (6 May 2024), Chad will hold its first election since Idriss Déby was killed in battle while fighting an insurgency in the north of the country. Following his sudden death in April 2021, the military took power, forming the Transitional Military Council (TMC)—chaired by Idriss’ son Mahamat Déby. The TMC initially promised an 18-month transition to democracy from junta rule but postponed elections until 2024 and passed resolutions allowing Déby the Younger to run for president. Many are feeling disgruntled.  

“My opinion of the country right now is that it’s worse than before,” Kaltouma Haroun told me. She’s 22 years old, works as an interpreter and recently finished her degree in linguistics at the University of N’Djamena. She has not yet graduated, though. One of the graduation committee members passed away not long ago, postponing the ceremony until further notice.

It will be hard to gain employment even with an official diploma. Youth unemployment in Chad is high, with 60% of recent graduates out of work in 2017. Due to an underdeveloped private sector, the state has historically provided jobs. Such positions are increasingly hard to come by, and the selection process for the available jobs is not always fair. “The reason so many people who finish their studies are still jobless is because those holding power bring their parents and family from the village. They don’t even need to know the alphabet to get a job,” Kaltouma said. 

The economic benefits are substantial for those lucky enough to enter the public sector. The starting salary for a teacher is around 250,000 XAF ($410) per month, which is a vast amount of money considering around 35% of people in Chad live in extreme poverty—under $2.17 per day.

Unable to obtain public employment, young people can find work as taxi drivers, construction workers and other so-called “low-skill” positions. These jobs put food on the table but offer no real prospects. As Auta Mohammed, a 32-year-old who’s been working several odd jobs since graduating from university in 2019, told me: “Young people are not standing around without doing anything. They still work just to survive.” Some resort to criminal activity to make ends meet, including becoming thieves or joining radical groups.

It’s important to remember that Chad is one of the world’s poorest nations. It had the 4th lowest Human Development Index (HDI) globally in 2022 and the 14th worst GDP/capita. Moreover, the percentage of Chadians living in cities, where public sector jobs are the most available, is just under 25%. Auta notes that “when people talk about ‘Chad, Chad,’ they are just talking about the capital city. People do not mention individuals from the other regions. Those are not even accounted for.” 

Indeed, the region of Barh el Ghazel—some 180 km from N’Djamena and home to 260,000 people—for example, has a 3.4% secondary school enrolment rate and over half of children aged 5–17 work in hazardous conditions. At the country level, the picture is equally damning. In rural areas, 56% of children 12–18 are out of school, compared to 25% in urban centres, according to a 2015 study. Most people in Chad are really struggling.

I asked Auta if he plans to vote in the upcoming election. Before he can answer me, our interview is interrupted. He needs to drop off someone. He says he’ll call me back in half an hour. Auta and his friend belong to the 80% of Chadians who are under the age of 35. Chad has the 3rd youngest population in the world, with a median age of 15. The youth will be vital to developing the country for the future.

Back on the phone, Auta tells me he will not vote because it won’t matter. There might be several names on the ballot, but the outcome is already decided: Mahamat Déby will be the next president. Auta also believes none of the candidates have the interests of young people in mind, only their own.

Kaltouma shares his sentiment. So, too, does Oumar Mohammed Issa, a 24-year-old business and communications student: “Young people are looking for how to innovate, how to have big companies, how to have what they want. But [the people in power] are still saying those ancient things that even [Idriss Déby] had been saying. They just repeat it.”

It’s not just rhetoric getting repeated. Similar to during his father’s reign, Mahamat Déby’s transitional government violently suppresses the opposition. On 28 February (2024), Yaya Dillo, Déby’s cousin and leader of the opposition Party of Socialists without Borders, was killed in a shootout with security forces. On 20 October 2022, hundreds of protesters, mainly young Chadians, were shot at, beaten and killed by the military—a day known as Black Thursday.

Mahamat Déby has also been appointing loyalists to the National Election Management Agency and the Constitutional Council—the two institutions overseeing the election. All of them were friends of his father and long-standing members of the former ruling party. Then there are the hoops one needs to jump through to be allowed to stand as a candidate in the election, including paying 10 million XAF ($16,385) to the Treasury. As expected, most of the prominent opposition candidates have been disqualified. 

Under Idriss Déby, presidential elections were held every five years, mainly for him to maintain legitimacy. Parliamentary elections last took place in 2011, and local elections occurred only once. His son seems to be following the same playbook.

It is no wonder the people I talked to showed little faith in the political establishment. Kaltuma told me: “If we want things to go well, we have to change the system. The example right now is Senegal, where [Ousmane] Sonko and his friend [Bassirou Diomaye Faye] took power. Or Burkina Faso with Ibrahim Traoré. When people are serious about developing the country and involve young people, things can go beyond just self-interest.” 

Faye and Sonko mobilised young Senegalese voters to win an unlikely electoral victory in March 2024. Traoré—seen as a hero by supporters and a dictator by opponents—seized power in 2022 through a military coup, becoming the world’s youngest leader. Whatever you think of these movements, it’s clear the young people of Chad feel excluded and want their voices heard.

Can things get better? Kaltouma is blunt. She thinks the situation in Chad will remain the same for at least a decade. Maybe even for 100 years. Auta is a little more optimistic: “We always try to keep our thoughts positive. Life ends when we stop believing.”

// Adrian