President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani (Photo by Kim Jae-hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
MaMohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, the current president of Auritania, a vast desert nation seen as a linchpin of relative stability in Africa's volatile Sahel region, was handily re-elected, officials announced this week.
The former army commander won just over 56 percent of the vote, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), securing a second five-year term during which Mauritania is set to become a major natural gas producer.
Dozens of supporters gathered 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 supporter Bekma Mohamed.
“I am committed to being a president for all Mauritanians, without exception or discrimination, and to pursuing a policy of engagement, collaboration, dialogue and cooperation with all political actors, including all opponents in the 2024 presidential elections,” Ghazouani said in a video statement.
As of Monday, the results had to be sent to the Constitutional Council within 48 hours for confirmation.
Ghazwani, the overwhelming favorite to win, would have faced a runoff had he not received a majority of the vote. He ended up beating his main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dar Abeid, who won just over 22 percent of the vote. Abeid, who had previously said he would not accept the election commission's results, on Monday denounced “massive fraud” and said he would wait for his team to release the results before launching street demonstrations.
“Any protests need to be peaceful,” he told supporters, according to his campaign's social media accounts.
Some of Abeid's supporters burned tyres, disrupting traffic in Nouakchott on Sunday, and a spokesman said his campaign manager had been arrested.
Police presence in the capital increased later in the evening.
Ghazwani came to power in the 2019 elections, marking the first time that two presidents have been elected and there has been a transition of power since independence from France in 1960 and a series of coups from 1978 to 2008.
The Sahel has seen a rise in jihadism in recent years, particularly in neighboring Mali, following a series of military coups, but Mauritania has not seen any attacks since 2011.
Ghazwani is widely seen as a driving force behind the West African nation's relative security.
Overall turnout for Saturday's vote was 55.39%, lower than 2019.
Election results began trickling in from Saturday evening and, in the interest of transparency, the Election Commission continuously published them on its official online platform, giving an indication of the final outcome.
“We did everything we could to create the conditions for good elections and we were relatively successful,” electoral commission chairman Da Ould Abdel Jelil said on Monday as he announced the results.
Ghazwani's other main rival, Hamadi Ould Sid El Mokhtar, leader of the Islamist Tewasoul Party, came in third with 12.8%.
Ghazwani has made supporting young people a priority in a country where nearly three-quarters of the 4.9 million people are under 35.
The incumbent prime minister says he wants to push ahead with further reforms thanks to a positive economic outlook after his first term was battered by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
With gas production starting later this year, growth is expected to average 4.9 percent (3.1 percent per capita) from 2024 to 2026, according to the World Bank.
Inflation is expected to fall from a peak of 9.5% in 2022 to 5% in 2023, before continuing to slow to 2.5% in 2024. — AFP