REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NOUAKCHOTT -- Mauritania's ruling party has won a large majority in legislative and local elections, while an Islamist party came second, the elections commission said Tuesday.

The ruling Union for the Republic (UPR) took 56 of 121 seats won in the first round, a victory of 46 percent. Another 26 seats will go to a second round of voting on December 7.

The main Islamist party Tewassoul, which had been closely-watched as it took part in elections for the first time, has won 12 seats, according to the results.

Tewassoul, the only member of the 11-party Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD) to resist an election boycott, has claimed the poll was marred by fraud.

Three other opposition parties won a total of 19 seats in the west African nation's first parliamentary and local polls since 2006.

The remaining 34 seats were shared between 14 small parties aligned with the ruling party, handing it firm control of parliament.

The COD on Monday called for the cancellation of the elections, which come after months of protests against the staging of the polls.

Following independence from France in 1960 and the ensuing one-party government of Moktar Ould Daddah, deposed in 1978, Mauritania had a series of military rulers until its first multi-party election in 1992.

The election was seen as a test of strength for Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz five years after he came to power in a coup and four years after he won a widely contested presidential vote.

The mainly-Muslim republic, a former French colony on the west coast of the Sahara desert, is seen as strategically important in the fight against Al-Qaeda-linked groups within its own borders, as well in neighbouring Mali and across Africa's Sahel region.

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