NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has won the presidential polls, according to provisional results from more than 99.27 percent of polling stations released by the West African country’s electoral commission Sunday.
Ghazouani was re-elected in the election with more than 56 percent of the vote, results from 4,468 polling stations out of 4,503 displayed on Mauritania’s independent electoral commission’s website.
The former army chief of staff and defense minister, who was first elected in 2019, has promised to boost investment to spur a commodities boom in the country of 5 million people, as it prepares to start generating natural gas by the end of the current year.
Experts had predicted Ghazouani, who faced six contenders in the election, to win the race in the first round. The provisional results suggested that his main foe, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, was second with 22.14 percent, followed by the Islamist Tewassoul party’s leader Hamadi Sidi El Mokhtar with 12.8 percent.
Earlier on Sunday, Biram Dah Abeid rejected the provisional results, accusing irregularities during the elections. He said that they would not accept these results from the so-called independent electoral commission.
Before the polls, El Mokhtar warned that his party would not accept the results if it suspected irregularities and rigging. In the 2019 election, various opposition candidates also questioned the credibility of the vote, sparking small-scale protest demonstrations in the African country. The commission’s data suggested that the turnout at Saturday’s vote was just under 55.33 percent.
