Mauritania's President Ghazouani holds unassailable lead in election

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) -Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani held an unassailable lead in the West African nation's presidential election with over 91% of votes counted, provisional results showed on Sunday.

Ghazouani - a 67-year-old former army chief of staff and defence minister who is widely expected to win the race in the first round - had 55.72% of the vote, the tallies on the electoral commission's website showed as of 1440 GMT.

The results from 4,068 polling stations out of the total 4,503 showed that his main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, was at 22.46%, while Hamadi Sidi El Mokhtar of the Islamist Tewassoul party was third with 13%.

Preliminary figures showed the turnout at Saturday's vote was just under 55%, the commission said.

(Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Andrew Heavens)