Mauritanian President Poised for Re-Election as Vote Counting Hits 78%

With 78 percent of votes counted, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has secured over 55 percent of the total votes cast.

This strong lead positions him well ahead of six other presidential candidates, with his closest challenger, Biram Dah Abeid, receiving less than 23 percent of the votes.

As counting continued on Sunday evening, President Ghazouani maintained a nearly insurmountable lead in the nationwide election held on Saturday, June 29.

The country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced these preliminary results late Sunday afternoon, noting that over 78 percent of the ballots had been counted.

Following Mohamed Ghazouani and Biram Dah Abeid, Hamadi Ould Sid’ El Moctar received 12.82 percent of the votes, while El-Aid Ould Mohamedan ranked fourth with 3.52 percent.

Mamadou Boukari secured fifth place with 2.38 percent, Outouma Soumare came sixth with 2.24 percent, and Mohamed Lamine Mourteji El Wafi followed with 0.97 percent.

The CENI reported that it counted votes from 3,523 out of 4,503 polling stations nationwide, accounting for 78.15 percent of the total.

Mauritania, a North African country with a population of 4.5 million, registered 1.9 million voters to elect one of the seven candidates who participated in the June 29 presidential election.

Incumbent Mohamed Ould Ghazouani had been widely expected to win even before the election.

Although critics accuse him of corruption, many Mauritanians apparently see him as a beacon of stability and progress, favoring his return to power.

Ghazouani, a former army chief and the current chairman of the African Union, is seeking reelection on the promise of further economic growth. He was first elected president of Mauritania in 2019 in the country’s first democratic transition.

Mauritania’s government consists of a single-chamber National Assembly, and while the president is directly elected by an absolute majority popular vote, it is the president who appoints the prime minister.