Early poll results put Mauritania ruling party candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani comfortably ahead after Saturday’s presidential election, taking 50.41% of the ballot with more than half votes counted, data from the electoral commission showed.

His nearest rival, Biram Dah Abeid, a prominent black Mauritanian slavery campaigner, has got 18.72% so far, the figures showed on Sunday. Mohamed Ould Boubacar, who is backed by Mauritania’s biggest Islamist party, has 18.13%, with support for the other two candidates in single figures.

About 850,000 votes out of 1.5 million have been counted.

The election was the first in the sparsely populated Saharan nation’s history since independence from France in 1960 to choose a successor to a democratically elected president.

Outgoing President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz surprised many of his compatriots and international observers by stepping aside after serving the maximum two five-year elected terms in Mauritania, a country of fewer than five million people comprising a large chunk of the western Sahara Desert.

His decision bucked a trend in which African leaders, including in Rwanda and Congo Republic, have changed or abolished term limits to cling to power.

Ghazouani, insider, former general and defence minister, has been heavily tipped to win from the beginning.

Ghazouani has campaigned on continuing economic and security progress made under Abdel Aziz, who since taking the helm in a 2008 coup, positioned Mauritania as an ally of the West against Islamist militants.

Under the leadership of the 62-year-old president, the economy has grown and will receive an extra boost when a large offshore gas field starts producing early next decade.