Chad Junta Leader, Mahamat Déby, Confirmed as Election Winner

Opposition candidate Succès Masra has also submitted a legal appeal to the council, against the preliminary results of the presidential elections announced last Thursday. In an X post, Masra shared a copy of the receipt showing that the documents had been filed.

Masra and his Les Transformateurs party are alleging serious electoral fraud, and seeking the annulment of the election results. The party says it has submitted USB keys with video evidence of voting boxes being stuffed and stolen, especially, “ballot boxes that were taken away by the soldiers to be counted elsewhere,” according to Sitack Yombatina, vice president of Les Transformateurs.

The party also says dozens of its members were arrested and accused of forging documents to get illegal access to count votes.

After the results were announced last week, Security forces were deployed throughout Chad’s capital city, N’Djamena, in order to deter unrest. Chad’s National Election Management Agency (ANGE) had declared the transitional president, Mahamat Idriss Déby, as the winner of the elections.

ANGE chief Ahmed Bartichet said Déby got 61.3 percent of the vote, winning the election in the first round and avoiding a runoff against the prime minister and main opposition candidate, Succès Masra. In his victory speech, Déby promised to work in favor of all Chadians, while also sparing, “a special thought for the unfortunate candidates who have lost the competition.”

Masra came in a distant second, according to the results declared, scoring 18.5 percent of the vote. A few hours before the announcement, he held a live broadcast on Facebook where he alleged that Déby was attempting to steal the election. “A small number of individuals believe they can make people believe that the election was won by the same system that has been ruling Chad for decades,” he said.

During his pre-emptive live broadcast, Masra called on his supporters to reject ANGE’s results. “To all Chadians who voted for change, who voted for me, I say: mobilize. Do it calmly, with a spirit of peace.”

Masra’s broadcast was preceded by his political party, Les Transformateurs, claiming that their candidate was being surveilled with a drone. The party also alleged that Monday’s voting process was marred by instances of violence and stuffing of ballot boxes. It denounced threats against supporters, claiming that several were intimidated and arrested. There were reports of soldiers and riot police patrolling the opposition-friendly southern areas of N’Djamena.

Masra’s party isn’t alone in its claims that the elections weren’t free and fair. Some local and international observers said they were not given accreditations and were sidelined during the polls. In a statement, the European Union criticized the Chadian government for not allowing over 3,000 EU-sponsored observers to witness the elections.

In an appearance on state television, the secretary-general of Coalition of Moral Authorities for Mediation (CONAMM), Baniara Yoyana, alleged that ballot boxes were seized and stuffed by government officials in favor of Déby. CONAMM, an association that includes traditional rulers, clerics, former government ministers and youth and women leaders, says these alleged irregularities might lead to civil unrest amongst citizens who feel that their rights have been abused.

Under Déby, dissent has been met with force. At least 40 people were killed in pro-democracy protests, while Masra escaped to the U.S. and stayed in exile, after elections that should have been held that month were postponed. In April 2021, Mahamat Déby took power after the passing of his father and long term Chad strong man, Idriss Déby. He promised to hold elections in 18 months but postponed them for another two years when the time was up.

Leading up to the polls, many observers were skeptical of a free and fair election being held. It was expected that Déby would win easily, especially after the February killing of opposition leader and vocal critic, Yaya Dillo Djerou, who would’ve been his most formidable opponent.