N’Djamena, Chad: Chief of Chad’s junta, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno won the presidential election in the first round, according to provisional official results released on Thursday.
His victory has extended his family’s decades-long grip on power.
African nation’s Monday’s vote was aimed at ending three years of military rule in a country combating jihadism in Africa’s Sahel desert region.
The ANGE electoral commission said Deby secured 61.03 percent of votes, defeating his Prime Minister Succes Masra who only got 18.53 percent, in the results to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council.
Meanwhile, there are reports that soldiers fired gunshots in the air in the capital N’Djamena to celebrate Deby’s victory and to disperse the protesters.
Earlier, the Prime Minister had claimed victory and alleged Deby’s team would rig the poll results.
According to reports some frightened people ran to take cover or returned to their homes after the shots, while Deby’s supporters shouted, sang, and sounded car horns near the presidential palace in central N’Djamena.
Meanwhile, supporters of Masra had been holding their own vote count in parallel to the official one. Masra in a speech released on his Facebook page just before the results were released, said his team’s count established his victory in the first round.
He went on to say the team of Deby, would soon announce his victory and steal the victory from the people.
Masra urges citizens to mobilize peacefully
Masra who was appointed prime minister in January, asked citizens of the country to mobilize peacefully to prove their success.
Deby and Masra faced eight other candidates unknown or considered not hostile to the regime in the elections.
ANGE chief Ahmed Bartchiret announced that the former premier of the African nation, Albert Pahimi Padacke came third with 16.91 percent of votes in an election that saw a turnout of 75.89 percent.
Masra had been a strong opponent of the regime before he was named prime minister in January after he returned from self-exile.
Early in the campaign, observers predicted a massive victory for Deby. He was named transitional president by fellow army generals in 2021 after his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled Chad for 30 years, was killed in a gun battle.
Deby promised an 18-month transition to democracy but later extended it by two years.
READ ALSO: KSrelief to Restore Homes Affected by Aleppo Earthquake
His cousin and chief election rival Yaya Dillo Djerou, was shot in the head in an army attack assault on February 28.
The International Federation for Human Rights has doubted the results of the elections terming the whole process neither credible, free nor democratic.
Masra’s on Wednesday strongly condemned violence against him and his supporters, asking people to unite against the electoral fraud.
Chad has remained a close ally of traditional security partner France, whose forces in recent years have been expelled by military regimes in former African colonies including Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
The Sahel countries are reeling from jihadist insurgencies and have strengthened ties with Russia after severing them with France.
