Mauritania's ruling party sweeps polls

Mauritania's ruling party swept legislative, municipal and local elections, according to final results announced Monday, in a key test before a presidential poll seven months away.

The Union for the Republic (UPR) party of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz won an additional 22 seats in Saturday's runoff vote, bringing its majority to 89 in the 157-seat parliament.

It won all 13 regional councils, which have replaced the Senate under a constitutional reform, the national election commission said. The UPR also bagged 162 of the 219 communes up for grabs.

The first round was held on September 1.

The arid West African nation is a frontline state in the fight against Islamist extremism.

The so-called "radical" opposition won 29 parliamentary seats, of which 14 were for the Islamist Tewassoul party. Ten others went to "moderate" opposition parties.

Tewassoul only won five communes.

Mohamed Vall Ould Bellal, the head of the poll commission, admitted there were gaps in the election but hailed "the winds of modernity sweeping over the national political scene".

Aziz, 61, who came to power in a coup in 2008, won elections in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term.

He has been frequently accused by opposition figures and NGOs of rights abuses, and though he says he will not seek a third mandate -- which would be against the constitution -- statements by ministers and supporters have led some to suggest he might.