Mauritanian ruling party wins outright absolute majority in legislative and communal elections

The Mauritanian ruling party (Social Democratic Republican party/PRDS) won the outright majority of the 81 legislative seats and took 184 out of the 216 communes, according to official final results released this Saturday.

The two-round polls gave four opposition parties 11 seats at the national assembly which will for the first time welcome opposition parties, while in the communal elections the opposition will take over some twenty communes.

Over 1,023,000 voters were registered and the turnout rate stood at 53.77% for legislative elections and 55.77 for the communal polls.

The Mauritanian president Mouaouyia Ould Sid Ahmed Taya has already ruled out on Friday that the opposition will be represented in the government.