Chad junta chief Deby wins presidential vote

Chad's junta chief Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno won this week's presidential election in the first round, according to provisional official results released on Thursday, extending his family's decades-long grip on power.

Monday's vote aimed to end three years of military rule in a country crucial to the fight against jihadism across Africa's Sahel desert region.

The ANGE electoral commission said Deby won 61.03 per cent of votes, beating Prime Minister Succes Masra, who garnered only 18.53 per cent, in results due to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council.

"I am now the elected president of all Chadians," Deby said in a brief televised address, promising to make good on his "commitments".

Masra had earlier claimed victory and warned Deby's team would rig the results.

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.

Masra went on to say the team of Deby, who was proclaimed transitional president three years ago by the army, would soon announce that he had won and "steal the victory from the people".

Thursday's announcement was a surprise, coming nearly two weeks earlier than the scheduled release date of May 21.

Early in the campaign, observers predicted a massive win for Deby, aged 40, whose top rival was killed earlier this year.