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Ruling party candidate declares himself victor in Mauritania vote
NOUAKCHOTT, June 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Government candidate and frontrunner
Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has declared himself the winner of the first round of
Mauritania’s presidential election, with around 20 percent of the votes still
to be counted.
The 62-year-old former head of the domestic security service made the claim
in the early hours of Sunday in the presence of current president Mohamed
Ould Abdel Aziz, his supporters and journalists.
The ballot is the first in Mauritania’s coup-strewn history that looks set
to see an elected president complete his mandate and transfer power to an
elected successor, although the opposition has raised concerns the vote could
perpetuate a government dominated by military figures.
Some 1.5 million people were eligible to vote Saturday in the vast,
predominantly Muslim state, which is approximately twice the size of former
colonial power France and has a population of just 4.5 million.
Preliminary official results had been expected at the start of this week.
But according to a source at the Independent National Electoral Commission
(CENI), Ghazouani had won 50.56 percent of the votes after 80 percent of the
votes had been counted.
“There is only 20 percent left (to count), but that will not change the
final result,” journalists quoted Ghazouani as saying.
“Our candidate will win in the first round of voting,” ruling party
spokesman Sidi Ould Domane had told reporters just before voting ended.
– Ballot irregularities? –
CENI said in a statement that it would continue compiling the results from
across the West African desert country before handing them over to the
Constitutional Council.
In the meantime, it said it “advises the candidates to show prudence and
restraint,” and hoped the calm climate seen during the campaign and on voting
day would prevail.
A source at CENI said leading opposition candidates Sidi Mohamed Ould
Boubacar, a former prime minister, and Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid had each
garnered about 18 percent with the count continuing.
Both men had complained of balloting irregularities and the expulsion of
representatives from some polling stations. However CENI said no major
problems had been reported.
Abeid hit out at Ghazouani’s claim of victory “while the vote counting is
still going on”.
“Ghazouani’s announcement constitutes a falsehood,” he said.
Ghazouani — who campaigned on the themes of continuity, solidarity and
security for the Saharan nation — served as Abdel Aziz’s chief of staff from
2008 to last year.
The outgoing president is a general who originally came to power in a 2008
coup, won elections a year later and was again elected in 2014 in polls
boycotted by the opposition.
Abdel Aziz, who has repeatedly warned that the country could fall back
into instability if his chosen candidate is not elected, is credited with
reforming the army, clamping down on jihadists and pushing to develop remote
regions.
Nevertheless, rights groups have accused the government of restrictions on
freedom of expression and assembly, while calling on the nation to do more to
counter violence against women and slavery, which persists in the deeply-
conservative state although it was officially abolished in 1981.
Authorities rejected an opposition request for foreign observers at the
election.
All of the candidates promised improvements in the standard of living,
though economic growth at 3.6 percent in 2018 is insufficient to meet the
needs of a fast-growing population, according to the World Bank.
The World Bank has welcomed the “macro-economic stabilisation” of the
country, where annual growth is expected to average 6.2 percent between 2019
and 2021.
But it has called for barriers to be removed in the private sector,
pointing in particular to corruption, as well as difficult access to credit.
BSS/AFP/RY/1925 hrs