The ruling party in Djibouti has retained its significant majority in parliament, a presidential adviser told AFP on Tuesday, following elections it was assured of winning after an opposition boycott.

The main opposition parties in the tightly-controlled Horn of Africa nation refused to participate in Friday's legislative poll, decrying the process to elect 65 MPs as a sham.

Provisional results had given 58 seats to the Union for Presidential Majority (UMP) party, said Alexis Mohamed, a special adviser to President Ismail Omar Guelleh, who has ruled the country since 1999.

The remaining seven seats went to the only other party in the race, the Union for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), he added.

"Due to the absence of any challenge from the two parties, the Constitutional Council can only confirm the provisional results, namely 58 seats for the UMP and seven for the UDJ," Mohamed told AFP.

He said the Constitutional Council has 15 days to confirm or overturn the results but could do so earlier if there were no formal challenges. The UDJ had considered mounting an appeal but did not proceed, he added.

The result gives UMP the same number of seats it won in the last parliamentary ballot in 2018.

"This victory is one of hope over pessimism, of unity and cohesion over hatred and division. This victory is for Djibouti and Djiboutians," Prime Minister Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed said on Saturday.

MPs serve a five-year term, with the law stipulating that 25 percent of the seats must go to women.

Despite its diminutive size, Djibouti enjoys a strategically crucial position at the mouth of the Red Sea, using it to woo trade investors and foreign military powers.

The poll follows a presidential ballot in April 2021 that saw Guelleh re-elected for a fifth term with 97 percent of the vote.

Under Guelleh, 75, Djibouti has seen a crackdown on press freedom and dissent.

Some 230,000 people were eligible to participate in Friday's vote but turnout appeared low, according to local media and witnesses.

The vote took place against the backdrop of the highly sensitive question of who will be Guelleh's successor.

One of Africa's longest-serving leaders, Guelleh is only Djibouti's second president since independence and cannot run again because of an age limit of 75 set in the 2010 constitution.