Mauritania's Ghazouani wins presidential vote, despite claim of fraud

RFI
·2-min read

Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has secured re-election with a comfortable margin, garnering 56.12 percent of the vote. The results were announced by the electoral commission this Monday.

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.

Overall turnout was estimated at 55 percent.

After all votes were counted, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) had said that former general Ghazouani would win the election with more than 56 percent of the vote.

That puts him well ahead of the country's main opposition leader, human rights campaigner Biram Dah Abeid, the CENI predicting 22 percent of the vote in his favour.

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.

Contestation

The opposition had however contested the legislative elections a year ago, which were won by Ghazouani's party.

They say the Mauritanian government has set up the national election monitoring body (CENI), which the opposition has denounced as a tool for manipulating the ballot.

(with AFP)


Read more on RFI English

Read also:
Mauritanian president tipped to secure second term in 'one-sided' election
African displacements and the search for refuge, in life and art
Mauritania president to run for second term in June polls

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • Michelle Obama the only Biden alternative who would beat Trump

    The only prospective candidate who could beat Donald Trump in the presidential election is Michelle Obama, according to a new poll.

  • ‘Longkang otak’? FT minister moots system to track Malaysians working abroad to tackle brain drain

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustafa has reportedl...

  • High Court says no to Najib’s judicial review bid over ‘house arrest’ call

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — The High Court today dismissed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s bid to compel the f...

  • A growing club led by Xi and Putin to counter the US is adding a staunchly pro-Russia member

    A club of Eurasian countries spearheaded by China and Russia to advance their leaders’ vision of an alternative world order is set to expand again this week – this time adding a staunch Russian ally that has openly supported Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

  • Ukraine to be told it is too corrupt to join Nato

    Ukraine will be told it is currently too corrupt to join Nato, in a major blow to Volodymyr Zelensky.

  • China urges Philippines to punish killers of Chinese citizen

    China called on the Philippines to catch and severely punish the murderers of a Chinese citizen in a kidnapping case that prompted Beijing’s diplomatic intervention.

  • Ukraine is killing Russian missiles with hand-me-down air defense weapons the US retired decades ago

    The MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air system was first fielded in the 1960s and has long been considered obsolete, with militaries favoring other weapons.

  • Donald Trump is the real President of the USA right now

    Donald Trump can’t believe his luck. Just a few days after Joe Biden seemed to fire himself from his own job live on air during a toe-curling presidential debate, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that sitting and former presidents of the United States possess a degree of immunity not available to private citizens. In this strange new world, Republicans can now win in televised debates and the courts. Nixon must be rolling in his grave.

  • Kamala Harris Closes In on Donald Trump in Hypothetical 2024 Matchup, Beating Joe Biden's Numbers: CNN Poll

    A new poll conducted by CNN shows the Democratic Party could have a better shot at the 2024 presidential election if there were another option besides Biden

  • Video appears to show gang-rape of Afghan woman in a Taliban jail

    Activist claims she was threatened with release of the footage in order to silence her, amid multiple reports of sexual violence inflicted upon imprisoned Afghan women

  • Ivanka Trump breaks silence on father’s conviction in hush money case

    NEW YORK — Ivanka Trump broke her weekslong silence regarding her father’s recent hush money criminal conviction during a podcast appearance released Tuesday. The former White House staffer said the experience has been agonizing. “On a human level, it’s my father and I love him very much, so it’s painful to experience, but ultimately, I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” she said on “The Lex ...

  • Russia's war-driven economy is so hot that the World Bank upgraded it to a 'high-income country'

    Russia's trade rebounded by nearly 7% last year, while activities in the financial sector and construction grew by 6.6% and 3.6% respectively.

  • The world must prepare for President Michelle Obama

    The 2024 US Presidential race intensifies. Speculation abounds over potential replacements for President Joe Biden amid increasing pressure from his party and the media to step aside after a jaw-dropping, catastrophic debate against Donald Trump last week. Among the names circulating, a game-changer is emerging: Michelle Obama. Could this be America’s worst nightmare?

  • Biden blames foreign travel for debate debacle, says he almost fell asleep on stage

    President Biden on Tuesday blamed foreign travel for his poor debate performance, saying that he almost fell asleep on the stage last week. “I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate,” he said while talking to donors at a fundraiser in Virginia. “I didn’t…

  • Boris Johnson Makes Dramatic Speech to Stir Tory Election Support in U.K.

    For some Conservative voters in the U.K., it might have been as if all their general election dreams have come true. Former British prime minister Boris Johnson entered the general election race Tuesday night, with a loud, last-minute plea to Tory voters to stay true to their party—even as polls show Rishi Sunak’s government headed for a drubbing at Thursday’s polls, with Labour led by Keir Starmer heading for a reputed landslide.“All this is coming now, this week, this gigantic Labour majority

  • Melania ‘cuts deal with Trump’ about her future role if he wins the White House

    Melania plans to split her time between Washington DC and New York, where the couple’s son Barron Trump is expected to attend NYU

  • Russia missed probably its best opportunity to steamroll Ukraine, war analyst argues

    War expert Mick Ryan says Russia failed to act decisively in the Ukraine war, missing a chance to strike a decisive blow.

  • All change? Labour tipped to oust Tories at UK election

    Britain looks likely to see a change of government this week, swinging leftwards back to the centre ground and the Labour party after 14 years of right-wing Conservative rule.  Voters will elect a new parliament from 7:00 am (0600 GMT) on Thursday, with predictions of a landslide Labour win that would make Keir Starmer prime minister -- 100 years after Ramsay MacDonald became the party's first. "There is more chance of lightning striking twice in the same place... than Rishi Sunak remaining as prime minister," Britain's pre-eminent political polling expert John Curtice told the BBC on Tuesday.Starmer and Conservative leader Sunak have been criss-crossing the country in the final days of a largely lacklustre campaign to try to win over wavering voters.  Many people appear to have long made up their minds, however, with focus on little else other than whether Labour's consistent 20-point lead in the polls for the last two years will translate into a record majority. Prime Minister Sunak on Tuesday insisted that he is "fighting for every vote till the last moment of the campaign", drawing hope from England's last-gasp win in the European football championships.  "It's not over until it's over," Sunak wrote on social media on Sunday night after England's footballers scored a stoppage-time equaliser against Slovakia and then an extra-time winner.Starmer, a staunch Arsenal fan who still plays five-a-side football at 61, is also calling on his team to play until the final whistle, with fears that talk of a Labour "supermajority" could hit turn-out.- Growth -Sunak and the Tories -- another name for the Conservatives -- have been going all out to play upon people's fears, warning of tax rises and weaker national security if they are voted out, in what Labour sees as a desperate last-stand to cling on to power.But in a sign the political landscape has already shifted, it was Starmer, not Sunak, whose views were sought in the aftermath of the far-right win in the first round of the French general election.He has also been asked how he, as the leader of a "progressive" centre-left party, would deal with the possible return of Donald Trump as US president later this year.Attention in the British media is meanwhile mostly on what a Starmer government would look like when the results for the 650-seat parliament start dropping from about 2230 GMT on Thursday into Friday morning.Thursday's vote is Britain's first July election since 1945, when Labour under Clement Attlee defeated the Conservatives of World War II leader Winston Churchill, ushering in a period of transformational social change.Attlee's government created the modern welfare state, including the National Health Service, Britain's most cherished institution after the royal family. Starmer's "change" agenda is not so radical this time around and promises cautious management of the country's economy, as part of a long-term growth plan that includes nursing battered public services back to health."The most important thing is growing the economy and wealth creation," he told The Times in an interview published on Tuesday. "You can talk about public services but if you haven't got your economy working then you can't do that."- 'Run out of road' -With an air of inevitability about a Labour win, Starmer and his colleagues are facing mounting calls and growing expectations to change Britain's flagging fortunes for the better.Economists say anaemic growth should be addressed. Pro-Europeans want Brexit reversed. Everyone wants an end to the sustained squeeze on their finances over the last decade and a half that has tipped more people into poverty."In 2010, when the Conservatives came to power, the UK had 35 foodbanks. Now there are 2,600," Gordon Brown, Labour's last prime minister, wrote in the Daily Mirror on Tuesday.Others want a return of political integrity and stability after a chaotic period of five prime ministers, a succession of scandals and ideological infighting between centrists and right-wingers that shows no sign of abating. Starmer -- the working-class son of a tool maker and a nurse -- has none of the political charisma or popularity of former leader Tony Blair when he ended 18 years of Tory rule in a wave of optimism in 1997. But the former human rights lawyer and chief public prosecutor stands to gain from a country fed up with the Tories, and a feeling of decline rather than improvement."The Conservatives have run out of road. Labour must be given a chance to govern," said a Financial Times editorial Monday.phz/har/bc

  • France probes Chad leader over luxury clothing spending

    French prosecutors have ordered an inquiry into allegations that Chad's president embezzled public funds to splurge on luxury clothing from Paris, a source close to the case said Tuesday.French investigative outlet Mediapart published in December a story in which it alleged that the Chadian leader, through two bank transfers, spent more than 900,000 euros ($965,000) on suits, shirts and other luxury items from the French capital.

  • UK's Labour to win largest majority in modern history, YouGov forecasts

    LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's opposition Labour Party is on track to win the largest majority of any party in modern history at Thursday's election, according to a final YouGov projection published on Wednesday. The multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) analysis predicted that Labour would win 431 seats, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives expected to win 102. It gave Labour a majority of 212 seats.