Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has secured over 55 percent of the total votes cast.
This is after about 78 percent of the votes have been counted.
This places him in a strong position over six other presidential candidates, with his closest challenger, Biram Dah Abeid, receiving less than 23 percent of the total votes.
As counting continued on Sunday evening, incumbent President Ghazouani held an almost unassailable lead in the nationwide election of Saturday, June 29.
The country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced the preliminary results on Sunday afternoon after counting over 78 percent of the ballots.
Following Mohamed Ghazouani, who is leading, Biram Dah Abeid is in second place with less than 23 percent of the votes. Hamadi Ould Sid’ El Moctar is in third with 12.82 percent, and El-Aid Ould Mohamedan ranks fourth with 3.52 percent.
Mamadou Boukari is in fifth place with 2.38 percent, Outouma Soumare is sixth with 2.24 percent, and Mohamed Lamine Mourteji El Wafi is seventh with 0.97 percent.
CENI reported counting votes from 3,523 out of 4,503 polling stations nationwide, representing 78.15 percent of the total.
Mauritania, a North African country with a population of 4.5 million, registered 1.9 million voters for the June 29 presidential election. Incumbent Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, who had been expected to win, is seeking reelection on a platform of further economic growth.
Ghazouani, a former army chief and the current chairman of the African Union (AU), was first elected president in 2019 in the country’s first democratic transition. Despite criticism of corruption, many Mauritanians support him for stability and progress.
In Mauritania’s political system, the president, elected by popular vote, appoints the prime minister. The country has a unicameral Parliament, the National Assembly.
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