CHAD PM SUBMITS RESIGNATION TO NEWLY ELECTED JUNTA CHIEF

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Chadian Prime Minister Succes Masra said Wednesday he had handed in his resignation, just over two weeks after his defeat to junta chief Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno in presidential elections.

Deby, 40, won the May 6 presidential vote with 61 percent of the ballot, according to final results, and is due to be sworn in at an investiture ceremony on Thursday in the capital N’Djamena.

He was proclaimed transitional president in April 2021 by a junta of 15 generals after his father, iron-fisted president Idriss Deby Itno, had been shot dead by rebels after 30 years in power.

Masra, also aged 40 and once a fierce Deby opponent before becoming prime minister four months ago, won 18.5 percent of the vote, but contested the results.

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 his Facebook page in a message authenticated by his team to AFP.

The move, he added, was also in accordance with the constitution.

Masra claimed victory in the first round of the ballot, which his party called a “masquerade” and which international rights groups had said would be neither credible nor fair.

The economist and former opposition leader faced accusations of being a stooge by the opposition, which has been violently repressed in Chad and its leading figures barred from standing.