The ruling party in Mauritania achieved a major victory in the legislative, regional and municipal elections that took place on May 13, according to the provisional official results published by the Electoral Commission in Nouakchott today, Sunday.
The elections aimed to select 176 deputies, 13 regional councils and 238 municipal councils, one year before the presidential ballot.
Since 2019, the presidential majority party “Insaf” led by Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El-Ghazouani has won 80 seats in parliament, according to the results read out by the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Dah Ould Abdel Jalil.
The 10 parties that are members of the presidential movement won 36 seats, while the opposition won 24 seats, including 9 for its main party, Islamic Communication.
A second session is supposed to take place on May 27 for half of the 176 parliament seats, given the existence of two electoral systems depending on the types of constituencies.
The ruling party also won the 13 regional assemblies, and advanced in 165 municipalities out of 238.
The majority presidential and opposition parties shared the remaining municipalities.
The participation rate reached 71.8% in these elections, in which 25 political parties participated. The opposition denounced what it called “great fraud”.
About 1.8 million voters were invited to participate in the elections, which is the first since Ghazouani assumed the presidency of Mauritania in 2019.