Provisional results indicate that the ruling party in Chad has secured a parliamentary majority.

Provisional results revealed on Sunday that Chad’s ruling party secured two-thirds of the seats in last month’s legislative election, which many opposition members boycotted, thereby strengthening President Mahamat Idriss Deby’s grip on power.

The results from the Dec. 29 election confirm the oil-rich Central African country’s shift to constitutional governance more than three years after Deby took power after the unexpected passing of his father and longtime predecessor, Idriss Deby Itno. Deby’s party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, won 124 out of 188 seats in the National Assembly, according to the national electoral authority. The participation rate was reported as 51.56%.

The election, which encompassed local and regional voting, marked Chad’s first in over ten years.

However, the Transformateurs party, led by opposition leader Succes Masra, along with several other groups, opted to boycott the election, claiming that the voting process was biased and devoid of transparency. The government has rejected this. Deby was chosen as president in another contested election in May, three years after he proclaimed himself interim leader following the death of his father in combat.

Since Deby’s election, Chad – an important Western ally in the battle against Islamic extremists in the Sahel area – terminated its defense cooperation agreement with France and warned of its possible exit from a regional multinational security group.

The cutting of military relations with France mirrors actions taken by Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, all of which expelled French soldiers and strengthened connections with Russia following a series of coups in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa. This week, security forces thwarted an attack on the presidency, which the government labeled a “destabilisation attempt.”