NOUKCHOTT - 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 said 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 four main opposition candidates denounced the poll as a charade.
"The results which are starting to come out show that it is an electoral charade which is trying to legitimise the coup" on August 6 last year, the anti-junta front's candidate Messaoud Ould Boulkheir told a press conference.
The parliamentary speaker was also speaking on behalf of Ahmed Ould Daddah, head of the main opposition party, the Rally of Democratic Forces, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, former junta chief (2005-2007), and Hamai Ould Meimou, an ex- ambassador and independent candidate.
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.
His biggest challengers are Ahmed Ould Daddah, head of the main opposition party, the Rally of Democratic Forces, parliamentary speaker Messaoud Ould Boulkheir, of the National Front for the Defence of Democracy, and Jemil Ould Mansour, leader of the Islamist party Tewassoul.
Some 1.2 million of the nation's three million people were eligible to vote in the polls which were monitored by international observers from the African Union, the Arab League and the association of Francophone countries.
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