According to official results on Sunday, the ruling party in Mauritania won a convincing victory in last week’s legislative and municipal elections, a litmus test for the veteran president ahead of next year’s presidential election.
When President Mohamed ould ghazouani took office, the elections were the first since 2019. He has supervised the West African country’s relative stability in the increasingly volatile Sahel zone and is widely expected to seek re-election in 2024, although he has not confirmed his intentions.
El insaf, the Ghazouani-led party, was the favorite to win among the 25 candidates competing for the country’s 1.8 million followers.
El Insaf took 80 of the 176 seats in parliament, according to Dah Sbdel Jalil, the head of the independent electoral commission (ceni).
Thirty-six other seats were given to groups affiliated with the president and 24 to the opposition, nine of which were affiliated with the Islamist Tewassoul party.