Photo: Collected
Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani was set to win re-election by a comfortable margin, results from the electoral commission showed, with an official proclamation due on Monday (1 July).
Mauritanians went to the polls on Saturday to choose between seven candidates vying to lead the sprawling nation, which has largely withstood the tide of jihadism in the region and is set to become a gas producer.
After all votes were counted, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said that former general Ghazouani would win the election with more than 56 percent of the vote.
That would put him well ahead of the country's main opposition leader, human rights campaigner Biram Dah Abeid, who CENI predicted would win 22 percent of the vote.
Abeid said on Sunday that he would not recognise the results of "Ghazouani's CENI".
"We will only recognise our own results, and therefore we will take to the streets" to refuse the electoral commission count, he said.
But he insisted their response would be "peaceful", calling on the army and the security forces "not to follow the orders of the regime".
Some of his supporters demonstrated in the capital Nouakchott, burning tires and disrupting traffic.
At the end of the afternoon, Abeid's campaign headquarters were surrounded by security forces, according to an AFP journalist. His campaign manager was arrested, a spokesman said.
The police presence in the capital increased significantly later in the evening.
Messenger/Disha
