Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has secured re-election, according to provisional results from over 99.27% of polling stations, as reported by the nation’s electoral commission on Sunday.
Ghazouani won with over 56% of the vote in Saturday’s election, based on results from 4,468 out of 4,503 polling stations, according to the Mauritanian Independent Electoral Commission’s website.
Former army chief of staff and defense minister, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, aged 67, who was first elected in 2019, has promised to boost investment to trigger a commodities boom in Mauritania, a West African nation with 5 million people, which is set to start producing natural gas by the end of the year.
Experts had anticipated Ghazouani’s victory in the first round of the election, given the ruling party’s dominance, despite him facing six challengers.
The preliminary results showed that anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, the main competitor, secured 22.14% of the vote, while Hamadi Sidi El Mokhtar of the Islamist Tewassoul party received 12.8%.
Abeid rejected these provisional results earlier on Sunday, alleging irregularities in the electoral process.
“We do not accept these results from the so-called independent electoral commission. We will use our own electoral commission to announce the results,” Abeid declared during a press conference in Nouakchott, the capital.
El Mokhtar had previously cautioned that his party would challenge the results if they suspected any irregularities.
In the 2019 election, opposition candidates raised doubts about the voting process, leading to minor protests.
Preliminary data from the commission indicates that Saturday’s voter turnout was approximately 55.33%.
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