NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani held a steady lead in the West African nation’s presidential election with just over half of votes counted, provisional results from the electoral commission showed on Sunday. Ghazouani had 54.87 percent of the vote, while his immediate rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, was at 22.86 percent, with 50.32 percent of votes counted, or just 2,211 polling stations out of 4,503 reporting by 0700 GMT, provisional results on the electoral commission’s website showed.