NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has won the country’s presidential election, according to provisional results from over 99.27 percent of polling stations released by the West African nation’s electoral commission Sunday.
Ghazouani was re-elected in the Saturday election with over 56 percent of the vote, results from 4,468 polling stations out of 4,503 showed on Mauritania’s independent electoral commission’s website.
The 67-year-old former army chief of staff and defense minister, who was first elected in 2019, has pledged to boost investment to spur a commodities boom in the West African country of 5 million people, as it prepares to start producing natural gas by the end of the year.
Analysts had expected Ghazouani, who faced six challengers in the election, to win the race in the first round, thanks to Mauritania’s ruling party dominance.
The provisional results showed that his main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, was second with 22.14 percent, followed by Hamadi Sidi El Mokhtar of the Islamist Tewassoul party with 12.8 percent.
Earlier on Sunday, Abeid rejected the provisional results, alleging irregularities.
“We’ll not accept these results from the so-called independent electoral commission. We’ll use our own electoral commission to proclaim the results,” Abeid told a news conference in Nouakchott, the capital.
Before the election, El Mokhtar had also warned that his party would not accept the results if it suspected rigging.
In the 2019 election, some opposition candidates questioned the credibility of the vote, sparking small-scale protests.
Preliminary figures showed the turnout at Saturday’s vote was just under 55.33 percent, the commission’s data showed.
Mauritania’s President Ghazouani wins re-election, provisional results show
https://arab.news/v945n
Mauritania’s President Ghazouani wins re-election, provisional results show
- Ghazouani was re-elected in the Saturday election with over 56 percent of the vote, results from 4,468 polling stations out of 4,503 showed on Mauritania’s independent electoral commission’s website
Campaigning starts in CAR election
- Both of Touadera’s top critics on the ballot paper, ex-Prime Minister Henri-Marie Dondra and the main opposition leader Anicet-Georges Dologuele, had feared they would be barred from the election over nationality requirements
BANGUI: Campaigning has kicked off in the Central African Republic, with the unstable former French colony’s voters set to cast their ballots in a quadruple whammy of elections on Dec. 28.
Besides national, regional and municipal lawmakers, Centrafri-cains are set to pick their president, with incumbent Faustin-Archange Touadera in pole position out of a seven-strong field after modifying the constitution to allow him to seek a third term.
Thousands of supporters packed into a 20,000-seater stadium in the capital Bangui on Saturday to listen to Touadera, accused by the opposition of wishing to cling on as president-for-life in one of the world’s poorest countries.
In his speech, Touadera, who was first elected in 2016 in the middle of a bloody civil war, styled himself as a defender of the country’s young people and insisted there was work to do to curb ongoing unrest.
“The fight for peace and security is not over,” the president warned the packed stands.
“We must continue to strengthen our army in order to guarantee security throughout the national territory and preserve the unity of our country.”
Both of Touadera’s top critics on the ballot paper, ex-Prime Minister Henri-Marie Dondra and the main opposition leader Anicet-Georges Dologuele, had feared they would be barred from the election over nationality requirements.
Touring the capital’s districts alongside a traveling convoy, Dologuele warned that the upcoming vote represents “a choice for national survival; a choice between resignation and hope.”
“Our people have experienced 10 years of this regime. Ten years of waiting, promises and suffering,” he added.
