Mauritania is preparing to experience a new presidential election on June 29. The poll announces Mauritania’s outgoing president, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, as the favorite in a country that has escaped the political instability of its neighbors in the Sahel.
Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, who has led the country since 2019, announced that he was a candidate for a second term in the election in a letter distributed to the media. He will face an audience of rivals but the outcome of the elections already seems sealed.
“I considered it appropriate to address you directly, dear compatriots, through this letter, to inform you of my decision to present myself to you, so that you renew your confidence in me for a new mandate,” he said. -he declared in his letter.
Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, can also benefit from his current presidency of the African Union. He promised to consolidate national unity, improve the living conditions of the most deprived, and guarantee security and stability in the country.
His party largely won the legislative elections last year, winning 107 seats out of 176, far ahead of the Islamist party National Rally for Reform and Development, also known by the abbreviation Tewassoul, which won 11 seats.
The Islamist-inspired party also presented a candidate for this election in the person of Hamadi Ould Sid’ El Moctar. The party only obtained legal status in 2007 and has since become the leading opposition party in the Mauritanian Parliament.
In 2014, Tewassoul boycotted the presidential election and supported a candidate outside his ranks in the 2019 election.
Coming second in the 2019 presidential election, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, the human rights and anti-slavery activist, also announced his candidacy on the same day as that of the current president. As a reminder, Mauritania only completely and officially abolished slavery in 1981.
Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, whose political party is not authorized, is in a delicate situation in the event of victory. With a party without legal existence, this poses a problem for the electoral register and undoubtedly, challenges to the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).
In March, the Mauritanian Ministry of the Interior began inclusive consultations with political actors and civil society in order to discuss means of recognizing political parties in view of the presidential elections in June.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, twenty parties are currently recognized, and 98 applications for recognition have been submitted to the competent services. The Mauritanian authorities have made clear their concern about too many parties which could complicate the electoral process.
Other political actors have launched into the presidential race although their chances are limited, like Ba Mamadou Bocar, leader of the Alliance for Justice and Democracy/Movement for Reconciliation, a party represented in the National Assembly by 4 deputies, or even Hamidou Moctar Kane, specialist in economic intelligence who is a Mauritanian who has lived abroad.
Finally, the former Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (2009-2019), who was sentenced to prison for offenses and “embezzlement” during his mandate, also ran as a candidate, but the question of legality of his candidacy creates a serious debate among the country’s jurists. This week, the courts refused his provisional release.
The participants called on all political parties, majority and opposition, to play their role in preventing the electoral farce which is expected to take place unilaterally.
Political opponents have recently warned against the “one-track” trend in this upcoming presidential election, calling on the masses eager for change to mobilize against restrictions including the systematic exclusion of young people from contributing to change. democratic.
They further stressed that participants in the political process in its current form bear responsibility for “the destabilization and security that will befall the country.”
The elections in Mauritania, the leading African country in terms of press freedom according to the latest report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), should be a new opportunity to prove the democratic turn and the stability of the country which has been a stronghold of coup d’états. States between 1978 and 2008 before the 2019 election which marked the first transition between two democratically elected presidents, between Ould Abdel Aziz and Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.
Mauritania remains a country that finds itself between a rock and a hard place in a region with strong security pressures between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The country is trying to counter the jihadist threat which has spread to the Sahel and has maintained perfect stability since 2011.
