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full screen Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno casts his vote on Monday. Photo: Mouta/AP/TT
The leader of Chad’s military junta, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, has declared himself victorious in the country’s delayed presidential election.
– I am now the elected president of all Chadians, he said in a short televised speech.
Hours before, Succés Masra’s main political rival claimed to have won the presidential election and warned that Deby had rigged the result.
Gunfire erupted in the capital N’Djamena after preliminary vote tallies were announced by the country’s electoral authority on Thursday.
Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno was named interim president by other military generals in 2021 after his father, Idriss Deby Itno who had ruled Chad with an iron fist for 30 years, was killed in fighting with rebels.
Deby promised elections after 18 months, but then extended junta rule by two years. Opposition parties have since fled, been silenced or merged with Deby. His cousin and main political opponent at the time, Yaya Dillo Djerou, was shot dead by the military on 28 February.