Mauritania’s incumbent President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has comfortably won re-election with 56.12 per cent of the vote, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said Monday.
The victory gives the former army chief a second term as head of the vast desert country, seen as a rock of relative stability in Africa’s volatile Sahel region and set to become a gas producer.
Ghazouani would have faced a second round had he not won more than half the votes in Saturday’s election. As it was, he placed well ahead of his main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, who won 22.10 percent, according to results announced by CENI chief Dah Ould Abdel Jelil.
Abeid said Sunday he would not recognise the results of CENI, which he accused of being manipulated by the government.
Ghazouani’s other main rival, Hamadi Ould Sid’ El Moctar, who heads the Islamist Tewassoul party, came third with 12.78 percent, according to CENI.
“We did everything we could to prepare the conditions for a good election and we were relatively successful,” said the head of the electoral commission.
A 2019 election brought Ghazouani to power, marking the first transition between two elected presidents since independence from France in 1960 and a series of coups from 1978 to 2008.
While the Sahel has in recent years seen a string of military coups and escalating jihadism, particularly in Mali, Mauritania has not experienced an attack since 2011.
Ghazouani, 67, is widely regarded as the mastermind behind the West African state’s relative security.
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