With the results from 90% of polling stations accounted for, Mohamed Ould Cheikh el Ghazouani is poised for re-election in the first round of Mauritania’s presidential election.
The incumbent seems well on his way to securing a second five-year term after the provisional counting of 92% of polling stations suggest he has polled 55.63 percent of the vote, according to the independent electoral commission on Sunday.
Ghazouani is the candidate of the ruling El Insaf.
The electoral commission website indicates that Ghazouani obtained 502,934 of the 903,989 votes cast, followed by Biram Dah Abeid with 22.56% of the votes.
For his first participation in a presidential election, the candidate of the Islamo-conservative Tawassoul party, Hamadi Ould Mohamed El Mokhtar, polled more than 117,000 votes, representing 12.99% of the ballot.
The provisional results must be confirmed by the electoral commisson being the only body authorized to proclaim them, before being transmitted to the constitutional council tasked with their final validation.
Although having improved his score from 2019, when he emerged second behind Ghazouani with 19% of the votes, Biram Dah Abeid rejected the provisional results of Saturday’s presidential election and called for demonstrations against the CENI.
Nearly two million Mauritanians were registered to vote choose a president from among seven contenders.
AC/los/Sf/as/APA