He considers himself the true victor of the polls instead of his boss General Mahamat Déby, who was declared winner with 61% of the vote.

“With the help of our lawyers, today we submitted a request to the Constitutional Council to reveal the truth of the ballot boxes,” Mr Masra announced in a social media post on Sunday.

The opposition figure and his Transformers’ party say the results should be annulled, alleging that ballot boxes were stuffed, while others were carried away by soldiers to be counted elsewhere.

Some opposition members were arrested and Mr Masra and his supporters threatened, the party added.

However, Mr Masra reiterated his call for his followers to remain “peaceful for the love of our country”, insisting that “the change you want to see cannot happen in a destroyed country”.

He had earlier urged them to mobilise and hold peaceful demonstrations to defend their votes.

The Constitutional Council is set to decide in the coming days whether to uphold the preliminary results or annul them as requested by Mr Masra and Yacine Abdramane Sakine, another candidate who lost the election.
Even though the council is yet to confirm Mr Déby as Chad's new president, some heads of state such as Nigeria's Bola Tinubu and Guinea Bissau's Umaro Sissoco Embalo have already congratulated the military leader.