Results are expected later in the day as Deby, 40, and recently promoted to the rank of field marshal, seeks to cement his position.

He won a five-year presidential term last May in an election boycotted by the opposition and described by international NGOs as “not free nor credible”.

A total of 124 candidates from 16 political parties are taking part in the indirect election organised at the N’Djamena town hall.

It comes a few weeks after legislative elections, which followed a referendum.

The bicameral parliament was established in 2020 by constitutional reform, approved by the National Assembly which created a Senate responsible for the representation of autonomous communities.

The provision was later confirmed by the new constitution approved in a December 2023 referendum.

Around eight million Chadians went to the polls in late December for legislative, provincial and local elections, equivalent to more than 51 percent of registered voters, according to the national agency overseeing the vote.

At the end of January, the Constitutional Council confirmed the victory of the ruling party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) with a solid majority, obtaining 124 seats out of 188, in the first legislative elections held since 2011.

The main opposition party, the Transformers, described the electoral process as a “resounding failure” due to a “massive boycott” that the party and other opposition groups had called for, predicting pre-ordained results.

Chad, a desert and landlocked country in the Sahel region, has, like other African countries, distanced itself from former colonial power France, forcing the departure of French troops and the handover of French bases which its own army took control of last month.

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© Agence France-Presse