Chadian ruler Mahamat Deby Itno casts ballot in polls set to end military rule

Chad's transitional President voted in N'djamena Monday (May. 6), in a long-delayed presidential election set to end three years of military rule.

Ten candidates are running in the poll including prime minister Succès Masra. Some 8 million Chadians are registered to vote.

“This is the commitment I made before God and the Chadian people, that of organizing, in the agreed upon timeline, elections which will mark a return to constitutional rule," Deby Itno told reporters.

Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, seized power after his father, a former president and military officer, was killed in 2021.

One of Itno's perceived challengers, Yaya Dillo, was killed in unclear circumstances in February.

Protests broke out across the country last year when the government announced that the younger Deby Itno’s rule would be extended.