Mauritania ElectionsBy Hademine Ould Sadi:The ruling party in Mauritania scored a comfortable victory in last week’s legislative and local elections, according to official results on Sunday, a litmus test for the veteran head of state ahead of next year’s presidential poll. Ghazouani’s El Insaf party was the favourite to win among the 25 parties vying for the backing of the country’s 1.8 million voters. El Insaf took 80 of the 176 seats in parliament, announced the head of the independent electoral commission (CENI), Dah Abdel Jelil. El Insaf won all 13 regional councils and 165 of the 238 local constituencies up for grabs. The opposition has complained of “massive fraud” in the elections, which saw an official turnout of 71.8 percent.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 23, 2023 14:10 UTC