Coup leader leads Mauritania presidential race

According to initial results, Mauritania's last year coup leader Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz took the lead in the country's presidential election with 51.6 percent of votes out of the third of ballots counted, an interior ministry source told AFP on Sunday.  If this trend goes on, the coup leader, who stepped down as head of the junta in April, 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, conveyed. Followers of Abdel Aziz celebrated the expected victory on the streets of the capital on Saturday night.
   
Saturday's elections included nine candidates for the top job.