N’DJAMENA, Chad
Chad's state election body said on Thursday interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby had won the May 6 presidential election outright with more than 61% of the vote, citing provisional results, even as his main challenger declared himself the winner.
Chad's junta has become the
first of the coup-hit countries in West and Central Africa to stage a return to
constitutional rule via the ballot box, but some opposition parties have cried
foul over vote-rigging concerns.
With tensions running high,
large numbers of security forces deployed at major intersections in the
capital, N'Djamena, ahead of the results announcement.
National Election Management
Agency chief Ahmed Bartichet said Deby had secured 61.3% of the vote,
comfortably more than the 50% needed to avoid a runoff.
He said Deby's prime minister
and top opposition candidate Succes Masra, 40, had won 18.53%.
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: mobilize. Do it calmly, with a
spirit of peace," he said.
What happens next is unclear.
While Masra drew larger-than-expected crowds on the campaign trail, analysts had widely predicted that the victor would be Deby, who seized power when rebels killed his long-ruling father, Idriss Deby, in April 2021.
"Post-election protests
are possible, though the threat of police repression could dissuade many people
from taking to the streets," Crisis Group experts said ahead of the vote.
The election is being closely
watched from abroad.
While other juntas in the
insurgency-torn Sahel region, including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, have told
Paris and other Western powers to withdraw and turned to Moscow for support,
Chad remains the last Sahel state with a substantial French military presence.
Security and the economy have
been key campaign issues. One of the world's least-developed countries, Chad's
meagre resources have been stretched thinner by multiple shocks including
climate change-fueled heatwaves and a refugee crisis linked to the civil war in
Sudan.
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