Deby confirmed winner of Chad polls
Idriss Deby has been confirmed as the winner of Chad’s presidential elections.
Announcing the result on Sunday, Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, the president of Chad’s Independent National Election Commission, said Deby won the May 3 election with 77.5% of the vote, handing him a third five-year term as president of the central African oil producer.
Despite a rebel attack on the capital, N’Djamena, three weeks before the polls, Deby’s re-election was widely considered a formality after opposition parties boycotted the election, calling it a farce.
Western diplomats had reported a low, unenthusiastic participation at the polls which appeared to hand Deby only a shaky mandate, but Bachir said turnout was 61%.
Rebels who launched the April 13 attack on N’Djamena, in which hundreds of people were killed, have already rejected Deby’s offer of dialogue.
Deby, 54, a French-trained pilot, has ruled Chad since his Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) rebel group seized power in a revolt.