N'DLAMENA: Chadian soldiers deployed on Friday in large numbers across several districts of the capital after late-night celebrations marked the presidential election victory of junta leader General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.
Even before the official results gave Deby more than 61 per cent in Monday's ballot, the presidential guard had parked many armoured vehicles on major junctions and thoroughfares.
Reporters said the number of troops on the streets on Friday appeared considerably larger than after previous elections.
Just hours before the official results were announced late on Thursday, Prime Minister Succes Masra had declared himself victor of the vote. The former opposition leader appointed prime minister in January, had warned that Deby's team would rig the results to ensure he won.
Masra urged Chadians to "mobilise peacefully but firmly... to prove our victory". The electoral commission said Masra had garnered only 18.53 per cent of the vote.
Supporters of Masra, a 40-year-old economist, had been holding their own ballot count in parallel to the official one, and in a speech posted on his Facebook page hours before the results were released, Masra said his team's count "establishes the victory in the first round, that of change over the status quo". "The victory is resounding and without blemish," he said.
No stepped-up security was visible around the headquarters of Masra's Transformers' party in the south of the capital on Friday.
Soldiers had let off repeated bursts of gunfire in the air near the party HQ after the results were announced late on Thursday, both in celebration of Deby's win and to deter protesters from gathering.
Heavily-armed members of the presidential guard wearing their red berets were out on Friday on main roads alongside an impressive number of armoured vehicles.
Soldiers in the N'Djamena neighbourhood where Masra's party is based fired their guns in the air after the results were announced, both in celebration of Deby's win and to deter protesters from gathering. But the capital appeared calm ahead of Friday's Muslim prayers and people went about their business.
Near the presidential palace, Deby's supporters had shouted, sung, blasted car horns and fired their own guns in the air in celebration. At least two teenagers were wounded by falling bullets.
Thursday's announcement was a surprise, coming nearly two weeks earlier than the scheduled release date of May 21.
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