SVE NEWS & FRANCE24.COM Sharing Series — Chad’s interim leader Déby wins presidential vote, main rival Masra disputes results

Chad’s state election body said on Thursday interim president Mahamat Idriss Déby had won the May 6 presidential election outright with over 60 percent of the vote, citing provisional results, even as his main challenger declared himself the winner.

Chad’s interim leader Mahamat Idriss Déby (left) faced off with his prime minister, Succès Masra, in the May 6 presidential vote. © AFP

The electoral commission said Déby beat his prime minister Succès Masra, who only garnered 18.53 percent. The results are due to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council.

Masra claimed victory earlier on Thursday, saying that the election results were being manipulated.

Déby was proclaimed transitional president by fellow army generals in 2021 after his father, Idriss Déby Itno, who had ruled Chad with an iron fist for 30 years, was killed in a gun battle with rebels.

The interim leader promised an 18-month transition to democracy but then extended it by two years.Opposition figures have since fled, been silenced or joined forces with Déby.

Déby’s cousin and chief election rival Yaya Dillo Djérou was shot point-blank in the head in an army assault on February 28, according to his party.

The International Federation for Human Rights had warned that the election appeared “neither credible, free nor democratic”.

The International Crisis Group also noted that “a number of problems in the run-up to the balloting cast doubt on its credibility”.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)