- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
TEHRAN, Jun 23 - 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.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - 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 entitled to vote Saturday in the vast, predominantly Muslim state, which is approximately twice the size of 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.
Source: AFP
Your Comment