Aziz leads Mauritania poll

MAURITANIA: Mauritania's coup leader Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz took an early lead in presidential elections with 51.6 percent of votes out of the third of ballots counted, an interior ministry source said Sunday.

"Out of 33 percent of polling stations tallied at 4.00 am (0400 GMT), he is on around 51.6 percent", a ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

If the tendency is confirmed, the coup leader, who ceded control as head of the junta in April and resigned from the army to contest Saturday's election, will be elected in the first round without the need for a runoff.

"Ould Abdel Aziz should get between 52 and 53 percent of the votes. Without question we will make it in the first round," Cheikhna Ould Nenni, his director of communications, said.

Supporters of the ex-junta chief celebrated the expected victory of their candidate on the streets of the capital on Saturday night.

The main opposition candidates were due to give a joint press conference at 0500 GMT.

Saturday's elections, in which nine candidates ran for the top job, are intended to restore constitutional democracy to this arid, but potentially oil-rich country in northwest Africa.

Ould Abdel Aziz toppled president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in a coup on August 6 2008.

Noukchott, Sunday, AFP