Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno, who has been in power for 30 years has died of injuries suffered on the frontline, the army spokesman announced on state television.
Deby, 68, “has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield” over the weekend, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a statement read out on state television.
Deby was re-elected to a sixth term with 79.32 percent of the votes cast in April 11’s election, according to provisional results from the electoral commission on Monday.
Former prime minister Albert Pahimi Padacke came in second with just 10.32 percent in the presidential vote, while turnout was 64.81 percent, Independent National Electoral Commission chairman Kodi Mahamat Bam said.
The first female president candidate in Chad’s history, Lydie Beassemda, came third with 3.16 percent.
The provisional results still need to be approved by the Supreme Court after it studies potential legal appeals.
After more than three decades in power, the victory of 68-year-old Deby was never in serious doubt after a campaign in which he faced a divided opposition lacking a major rival candidate and demonstrations were banned or dispersed.
Meanwhile, a four-star general who is a son of Chad’s slain president Idriss Deby Itno will replace him at the head of a military council, the army announced Tuesday.
“A military council has been set up headed by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno,” the army’s spokesman, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna, said on state radio, shortly after the announcement that the newly re-elected president had died of wounds while fighting rebels in the north of Chad.
