KIGALI, Rwanda

Chad’s transitional President Mahamat Idriss Deby won the country’s presidential election held this week to end a three-year transition to democratic rule, the national electoral agency announced Thursday, hours after the main opposition challenger claimed victory for himself.

Deby won 61.03% of the May 6 vote compared to 18.53% for his main challenger Prime Minister Succes Masra, according to provisional results by the National Election Management Agency (ANGE).

Albert Pahimi Padacke, the first transitional prime minister, obtained 7.91% of the vote.

The Constitutional Council is due to endorse the results.

At least 8.2 million voters were eligible to participate in the polls.

However, Masra claimed he had won the election in a speech hours before the announcement of the provisional results.

“We won on May 6. The victory is resounding and unblemished,” he said.

“What we feared is now happening -- a small group of individuals have decided to reverse the order of the numbers. This small group is wrong about the election results. We all know that they want to rob the people of their victory. The people are standing up and will not let this happen."

The prime minister urged citizens to mobilize peacefully in the hours and days following the announcement of the results.

Deby seized power in 2021 after the death of his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who died on the frontline of a war against rebels after ruling for 30 years.

The younger Deby had pledged to hand over power to an elected government after 18 months -- a deadline that was missed -- before postponing elections to this year.

He ran on the ticket of the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) party, founded by his father, after a new constitution adopted following a December referendum allowed him to seek election.

Deby also banked on the backing of a coalition of over 200 other parties.