The chairperson of the African Union Commission has denied any intention to run for the next presidential election scheduled at the end of the transition in his country Chad.
”I believe that it is a political quarrel in which they want to drag me, but I will not fall into this trap” said the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, while denying the claims made about his possible candidacy in the upcoming presidential election in Chad
“I am not a candidate for anything. I am the chairperson of the African Union Commission. I still have two years and more to fulfill my mandate and I focus on that,” he said in an interview with RFI and France 24 on the sidelines of the Francophonie summit in Djerba, Tunisia last weekend.
Moussa Faki Mahamat said this question was frequently asked during his long political career especially when he was still prime minister of the late President Idriss Déby Itno in 2004.
This idea conveyed by the transitional government of Chad is “a deliberate amalgam,” claimed Mr. Mahamat who recently published a report damning the authorities in his country following the bloody repression during an opposition demonstration in the capital and several major cities.
On 20 October, the police fired live ammunition at demonstrators, killing 50 people and injuring more than 300 according to official accounts.
Despite this, Chad has not been suspended from regional and sub-regional bodies.
“At the beginning, I was accused of wanting to make the most of my country, which escaped suspension. Now, it is the opposite,” said Moussa Faki, adding that he has the right to nurse ambitions or a project for his country like any Chadian citizen who meets the conditions laid down by law.
ARD/te/lb/as/APA