by Mahamat Ramadane and Bate Felix
N’DJAMENA, May 9 (Reuters) – Chad’s National Election Management Agency announced on Thursday that, according to provisional results, interim President Mahamat Idriss Déby won the May 6 presidential election with more than 61 % voices.
Chad, where the military junta seized power in 2021, is the first country in the Sahel to hold a presidential election since a wave of coups in the region.
As the country experiences renewed tension, security forces were deployed before the announcement of the results at the most important intersections in the capital, N’Djamena.
The head of the National Election Management Agency, Ahmed Bartichet, said Mahamat Idriss Déby won 61.3% of the vote, well above the 50% needed to avoid a runoff.
Ahmed Bartichet indicated that Succès Masra, Prime Minister of Chad and main rival of Mahamat Idriss Déby, was credited with 18.53% of the votes.
Success Masra declared shortly before the ceremony that he had won the vote and called on his supporters to mobilize calmly.
Although Succès Masra attracted larger crowds than expected during the campaign, analysts believed that Mahamat Idriss Déby, who came to power in April 2021 when his father, President Idriss Déby, was assassinated by rebels, would win the vote. (Written by Alessandra Prentice; French version Camille Raynaud)
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