NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritania´s incumbent President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has comfortably won re-election at the helm of the vast desert nation, seen as a rock of relative stability in Africa´s volatile Sahel region.
The former army chief won just over 56 percent of the vote, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said on Monday, giving him a second five-year term during which Mauritania is set to become a gas producer.
Dozens of supporters massed outside Ghazouani´s campaign headquarters in the capital Nouakchott after the final provisional results of Saturday´s election were announced. “I don´t know how to express my joy. Our president is a great president. We are very happy,” said 56-year-old Bekouma Mohamed.
The results must now be sent to the Constitutional Council within 48 hours for confirmation. Ghazouani -- who was the overwhelming favourite to win -- would have faced a second round had he not secured more than half the votes.
As it was, he placed well ahead of his main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, who won just over 22 percent. Abeid, who previously said he would not accept CENI´s results, on Monday decried “massive fraud” and said he was waiting for his own teams to provide results before launching possible street demonstrations.
“Any protest you make must be peaceful”, he told his supporters, according to his campaign´s social media account. Some of Abeid´s supporters burnt tyres and disrupted traffic in Nouakchott late on Sunday, with a spokesman saying his campaign manager was arrested.
The police presence in the capital increased significantly later in the evening. The interior minister warned late on Sunday that he would “not tolerate any action likely to disturb the peace and tranquillity of our citizens and residents”.
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. Saturday´s poll had an overall turnout of 55.39 percent, lower than in 2019. The results had trickled in since Saturday evening and were published continuously by CENI on an official online platform as a transparency measure, giving an indication of the final outcome.
