Ghazouani holds early lead in Mauritania election

Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has opened an early lead in the presidential election, provisional results from the country's electoral commission show.

Ghazouani was leading with 49 per cent, while his main rival, prominent anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, was at 22.68 per cent, with around 6.49 per cent of total votes counted.

Ghazouani, 67, a former top soldier who is widely expected to win, has pledged to boost investment to spur a commodities boom in the West African country of five million people, as it prepares to start producing natural gas.

"The last word belongs to the Mauritanian voters. I commit myself to respecting their choice," he said after he voted on Saturday.

Elected for a first term in 2019, Ghazouani is facing a field of six opponents, among them Abeid, who came second in 2019 with over 18 per cent of the vote.

Other challengers include lawyer Id Mohameden M'Bareck, economist Mohamed Lemine El Mourtaji El Wafi, and Hamadi Sidi El Mokhtar of the Islamist Tewassoul party.

Some two million people were registered to vote, with major election issues including fighting corruption and creating jobs for the young.

If re-elected, Ghazouani has promised a natural gas-fired power plant from the Greater Tortue Ahmeyin offshore gas project, which is on track to start production by the end of the year. He has also pledged to invest in renewable energy and expand gold, uranium and iron-ore mining.

Ghazouani has presided with relative stability since 2019, while Mauritania's Sahel neighbours, including Mali, struggle with Islamist insurgencies that have led to military coups.

Mauritania has not recorded a militant attack on its soil in recent years and Ghazouani, who chairs the African Union, has promised to manage Islamist threats.

Abeid is challenging Ghazouani on his human rights record and the marginalisation of Mauritania's Black African population, while El Mokhtar has a following among conservative and religious voters.

"President Ghazouani will likely win the vote in the first round," said Mucahid Durmaz, senior West Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

"The president's re-election bid has been boosted by the ruling party's landslide victory in legislative elections last year," he added.

If no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote, the election will go to a second round.