Chad's military ruler Déby wins disputed presidential vote

Chad's interim President Mahamat Idriss Déby has been declared the official winner of the 6 May presidential elections with over 61 percent of the vote, according to provisional results released Thursday, extending his family's decades-long grip on power. 

Chad's electoral commission (ANGE) said Gen Déby had secured 61.3 percent of the vote – comfortably over the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off.

His closest rival, Prime Minister Succès Masra, won just 18.53 percent.

The results are due to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council.

"I am now the elected president of all Chadians," Déby said in a brief televised address, promising to make good on his commitments.

Masra had earlier claimed that he had won a "resounding victory" in the first round of voting and warned Deby's team would rig the results.

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.

His victory ensures the Déby family's three-decade rule will continue.

Celebrations

Soldiers in the N'Djamena neighbourhood where Masra's party is based fired their guns in the air after the results were announced – both in celebration of Deby's win and to deter protesters from gathering, AFP news agency reported.

Some frightened people ran for cover or to their homes and the capital's streets were soon empty.

Déby's supporters shouted, sang, sounded car horns and fired their own guns in the air in celebration.

At least two teenagers were injured by falling bullets, an AFP journalist saw.

Disputed results

The results of Monday's election were announced nearly two weeks earlier than the scheduled release date of 21 May.

Supporters of Masra had been holding their own ballot count in parallel to the official one.

In a speech posted on his Facebook page hours before the results were released, Masra said his team's count "establishes the victory in the first round, that of change over the status quo".

"The victory is resounding and without blemish," he said, warning that Déby's team would soon announce that he had won and "steal the victory from the people".

Masra, a former opposition leader appointed prime minister in January, urged Chadians to "mobilise peacefully to prove our victory".

Deby and Masra faced eight other candidates who were either relatively unknown or considered not hostile to the regime.

Former premier Albert Pahimi Padacke came in third with 16.91 percent of votes.

Turnout was 75.89 percent, according to the head of the electoral commission.

On Tuesday the European Union condemned Chad's failure to allow nearly 3,000 civil society members financed by the EU to observe the presidential election.

The disputed results cap a fraught electoral period marked by thekilling of opposition figure Yaya Dillo, the rejection of prominent opposition figures from the candidate list, and other issues that critics say have compromised the credibility of the process.

(with newswires)