Mauritanian president’s candidate claims election victory

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — The candidate chosen by Mauritania’s outgoing president has claimed victory only hours after polls closed.
Mohamed Ould El Ghazouani is a retired general who served as Mauritania’s defense minister before being chosen as the heir apparent to retiring President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
The handover will mark the first peaceful one since Mauritania’s independence from France nearly 60 years ago though the election’s outcome was widely pre