Violence and issues of voter fraud, however, marred the provisional vote count, which was announced earlier than expected.
Military leader Mahamat Idriss Deby won a closely watched presidential election in the country of Chad, according to provisional results released by his National Electoral Management Agency.
Deby won more than 61 percent of the vote, according to figures released on Thursday, eliminating the need for a runoff with his closest rival, Prime Minister Succes Masra, who received 18.5 percent.
The victory allows Deby, the incumbent, to maintain the presidency with an electoral mandate.
He previously led the country as interim president, taking power after his father, the late President Idriss Deby, was killed in April 2021 while fighting a rebel group in the north of the country.
But his rival in the presidential race, Masra, has already indicated that he will not accept the election results.
On Thursday morning, Masra issued a live broadcast on Facebook declaring himself the winner. He also accused Deby and other government officials of rigging the election results to maintain power.
“A small number of individuals believe they can make people believe that the elections were won by the same system that has governed Chad for decades,” Masra said.
Deby’s father led the country for more than 30 years, from 1990 to 2021, when he was shot dead shortly after his sixth presidential victory.
Critics have accused him and now his son, current President Deby, of stifling the opposition to maintain their grip on power.
They also pointed to the circumstances leading up to the May 6 presidential vote that could have influenced its outcome.
For example, one of the main opposition figures, Deby’s cousin Yaya Dillo, was killed when security forces began a shootout at his party headquarters.
Other opposition figures were banned from trampling on “irregularities” in their campaign candidacies.
On Thursday, Masra called on his supporters and security forces to support his claim to the presidency and reject the electoral agency’s results.
“To all the Chadians who voted for change, who voted for me, I say: mobilize. Do this calmly, in a spirit of peace,” he said in his Facebook broadcast.
Thursday’s results came earlier than expected, as provisional results were originally expected to arrive on May 21.
Chad is considered the first of the military-led countries in Africa’s Sahel region to hold democratic elections, although questions persist about the fairness and credibility of the vote.
Neighboring countries such as Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have resisted coups d’état that also left military leaders in charge of their governments. Eight coups d’état have hit the region since 2020 alone.
This month’s presidential race was also the first time in the country’s history that an incumbent faced his prime minister at the polls.
Upon taking office in 2021, Deby committed to holding “free and democratic elections” within 18 months – but his government extended the transition period until 2024, allowing Deby to remain in office in the meantime.
During this time, he led a referendum on a new constitution that allowed him to mount his electoral bid for 2024.
A lifelong soldier, Deby led the powerful DGSSIE, an acronym for the General Directorate of Security Services for State Institutions. In this role he worked closely with French troops.
Home to nearly 18 million people, Chad was under French colonial rule until 1960 and remains the last country in the Sahel region to have a French military presence, with warplanes and troops stationed there.
Following Thursday’s announcement, security forces were deployed at intersections in the capital N’Djamena in case of unrest.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
