NOUAKCHOTT   -   Mauritania’s incumbent President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has comfortably won re-election, receiving 56.12 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said Monday.

The victory gives the former army chief a second term as head of the vast desert country, seen as a rock of relative stability in Africa’s volatile Sahel region and set to become a gas producer.

Ghazouani placed well ahead of his main rival- Biram Dah Abeid, who won 22.10 percent of votes in Saturday’s election, according to results announced by CENI chief Dah Ould Abdel Jelil.

Abeid said Sunday he would not recognise the results of CENI, which he accused of being manipulated by the government.

Ghazouani’s other main rival, Hamadi Ould Sid’ El Moctar, who heads the Islamist Tewassoul party, came third with 12.78 percent, according to CENI.