Chad Prime Minister Masra resigns after disputed vote winner confirmed

The military government chief’s victory in the presidential polls prompts Succes Masra to resign from the transitional post.

Chadian Prime Minister Succes Masra says he has handed in his resignation, weeks after his defeat to military government chief Mahamat Idriss Deby in the presidential election.

Masra – a staunch opponent of the military government, which seized power in April 2021 – was appointed prime minister of the transitional government in January, four months before the election, in a move to appease the opposition.

“I’ve just submitted my resignation and that of the transition government, which became irrelevant with the end of the presidential election,” Masra said on Wednesday.

The move, he said on X, was also in accordance with the constitution.

Deby, 40, was himself proclaimed transitional president in April 2021 by a military government of 15 generals after his father, iron-fisted President Idriss Deby Itno, was shot dead by rebels after 30 years in power.

Deby won the May 6 presidential election with 61 percent of the votes, according to final results.

Masra, also 40 and once a fierce Deby opponent, won 18.5 percent of the votes but contested the results.

He claimed victory in the election, which his party called a “masquerade” and international rights groups had said would be neither credible nor fair.

The Constitutional Council later confirmed Deby as the winner, and Masra acknowledged its ruling, saying there were no other legal means to contest the results.

The oil-producing country is the first of a string of coup-hit states in West and Central Africa’s Sahel region trying to return to constitutional rule by holding elections.

Chad has experienced coups, human rights abuses by its governments and rebel attacks since its independence from France in 1960.