the elections so far

Nouakchott, Mauritania - Parties opposing the policies of Mauritania's toppled president Maaouya Ould Taya appear to have made important gains in Sunday's historic parliamentary and municipal elections, an interior ministry source said Monday.

The elections are thought to have been the first transparent ones since the Islamic north-west African country of 3 million became independent from France in 1960.

Partial preliminary results indicated that the Popular Alliance for Progress (APP) headed by former slave Messaoud Ould Boulkheir was running first in the Nouakchott region, the source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD) of veteran politician Ahmed Ould Daddah was in the lead in the southern region of Trarza, the second most populated in Mauritania, according to the same source.

Both parties belong to a coalition opposing the return to power of collaborators of Ould Taya, authoritarian president for 21 years, who was ousted in a bloodless coup in August 2005.

Mauritania has since been governed by a military junta headed by Colonel Ely Ould Mohammed Vall and a transitional civilian government.

Ould Daddah is regarded as a moderate technocrat, while Ould Boulkheir is known for defending the rights of slave descendants known as Haratins or 'black Moors,' who feel discriminated against by mostly light-skinned Arab-Berber 'white Moors.'

Independent candidates had also made headway in parts of Nouakchott, the source said, without specifying whether they were moderate Islamists or former Ould Taya supporters.

The source did not give any figures. He estimated voter turnout at 70 per cent.

Polling stations remained open into the night, longer than had been planned, because of the large turnout. Definitive results were not expected until Tuesday.

More than a million people were eligible to elect the 95-strong parliament and members of 216 municipal councils. Both organs are expected to have at least 20 per cent female members in line with a new law to abolish 'ancient habits of women being dominated by men,' Ould Vall said.

Nearly 30 political parties representing a wide spectrum of views as well as numerous independent candidates were contesting the elections.

The military junta had pledged to hand power over to civilians in a series of transparent polls.

International observers said Sunday's elections appeared to have been democratic except for some small incidents, such as campaigning in front of poll stations.

About 500 observers supervised the elections, including 200 observers from international organizations such as the African Union, the Arab League and the European Union.

The parliamentary and municipal elections were the second in a string of polls aimed at launching a democratic era.

They were preceded by a referendum in June which overwhelmingly approved a new constitution limiting the president's mandate to two five-year terms.

A vote for the senate is scheduled to take place in January, and the democratization process is due to be wrapped up by presidential elections in March 2007.

The elected authorities will be expected to continue forging a democratic Mauritania after a long period of practices such as press censorship, jailing opponents and cronyism under Ould Taya.

The new authorities will also have an opportunity to relieve the poverty of the desert country, if it manages the new oil wealth wisely.

Mauritania is one of Africa's upcoming oil producers, where an Australian-led consortium started extracting oil this year.