Chad PM files bid to annul presidential poll results

Chad’s interim Prime Minister Succès Masra has filed a petition at the Constitutional Council challenging the preliminary results of last week's presidential election.

His boss, General Mahamat Déby, was declared winner with 61% of the vote, but Mr Masra considers himself to be the true victor.

“With the help of our lawyers, today we submitted a request to the Constitutional Council to reveal the truth of the ballot boxes,” Mr Masra announced in a social media post on Sunday.

The opposition figure and his Transformers’ party said the results should be annulled, alleging that some ballot boxes were stuffed and others were carried away by soldiers to be counted elsewhere.

Some opposition members have been arrested, while Mr Masra and his supporters have been threatened, the party added.

However, Mr Masra reiterated that his followers remain “peaceful for the love of our country”, insisting that “the change you want to see cannot happen in a destroyed country”.

Shortly before the election results were announced, Mr Masra had urged his supporters to mobilise and hold peaceful demonstrations in order to defend their votes.

The Constitutional Council is set to decide in the coming days whether to uphold the preliminary results or annul them, as requested by Mr Masra and Yacine Abdramane Sakine, another candidate who lost the election.

Even though the council is yet to confirm Mr Déby as Chad's new president, some heads of state such as Nigeria's Bola Tinubu and Guinea Bissau's Umaro Sissoco Embalo have already congratulated the military leader.