Chad’s electoral body declared on Thursday interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby had won the May 6 presidential election with over 61% of the vote.
National Election Management Agency chief Ahmed Bartichet said Deby had secured 61.3% of the vote – comfortably over the 50% needed to avoid a run-off.
He said Deby’s prime minister and top opposition candidate Succes Masra, 40, had won 18.53%.
Thursday’s results came earlier than expected, as the provisional results were originally thought to arrive on May 21.
Chad is considered the first of the military-led countries in Africa’s Sahel region to hold a democratic election, though questions about the vote’s fairness and credibility have endured.
Just before the ceremony, Masra claimed victory in a live broadcast on Facebook and called on security forces and his supporters to oppose what he called an attempt to steal the vote.
“A small number of individuals believe they can make people believe that the election was won by the same system that has been ruling Chad for decades,” he said.
“To all Chadians who voted for change, who voted for me, I say: mobilise. Do it calmly, with a spirit of peace,” he said.
Deby’s father had led the country for more than 30 years, from 1990 to 2021, when he was shot to death shortly after his sixth presidential victory.
Critics have accused both him and now his son, the current President Deby, of stifling the opposition to maintain their grip on power.
They have also pointed to circumstances leading up to the May 6 presidential vote that could have swayed its outcome.
For instance, one of the leading opposition figures, Deby’s cousin Yaya Dillo, was killed when security forces engaged in a shootout at his party headquarters.
Other opposition figures have been barred from running over “irregularities” in their applications to campaign.
Peoplesmind
