Chad’s interim Prime Minister Succès Masra has filed a petition at the Constitutional Council challenging the preliminary results of last week’s presidential poll.
“With the help of our lawyers, we have today filed a request with the Constitutional Council to reveal the truth at the ballot boxes,” Masra said on social media.
The opposition said they were asking for the election to be annulled, claiming boxes were carted away by soldiers and stuffed.
“Our request is for the annulment, pure and simple, of this electoral farce,” Sitack Yombatina, Vice president of Masra’s Transformers Party, told journalists.
Junta leader General Mahatma Deby was declared the winner of the elections with 61.03 per cent of the vote against Masra’s 18.53 per cent.
The Prime Minister had already claimed victory and warned that Deby’s team would attempt to steal the result.
Reports say dozens of Masra’s party members have been arrested by the government, accusing them of forgery and using false documents during the elections. The party has condemned the arrests.
Masra, an erstwhile critic, was appointed Prime Minister months before the polls, leading the opposition to dismiss him as a stooge acting out a script to give the election a semblance of credibility.
Even though Mr Déby hasn’t been officially confirmed as Chad’s new leader by the Constitutional Council, some heads of state such as Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu and Guinea Bissau’s Umaro Sissoco Embalo have already sent in congratulatory messages.