Chad’s incoming interim Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke reiterates statements by the new military junta that their transitional government should lead to a democratic transfer of power. The junta took power after the president Idriss Déby Itno was killed by rebels last week, and is headed by his son Mahamat.
Chad’s new military junta named a transitional prime minister, appointing a distant runner-up in presidential polls a week after veteran leader Idriss Deby Itno died fighting rebels.
Albert Pahimi Padacke was the last premier under Deby, whose shock death triggered the creation of a so-called Transitional Military Council (TMC) headed by his son, 37-year-old Mahamat Idriss Deby.
Pahimi Padacke will lead a government whose members will be named or revoked by the younger Deby, according to a 95-article “Transition Charter” published last Wednesday that supersedes the constitution.
The government will oversee a transition period of 18 months leading to “free and democratic elections,” under the charter.
The TMC groups 15 generals seen as the closest to the late president, who won praise abroad for his leadership fighting jihadists in the vast and volatile Sahel.
Pahimi Padacke was credited with just over 10% of the vote in the April 11 elections, whose landslide victory by Deby was in little doubt.
