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Mauritania votes as 1st peaceful transfer of power expected

Mauritania votes as st peaceful transfer of power expected
Mauritania votes as 1st peaceful transfer of power expected

2019-06-22 00:00:00 - Source: Baghdad Post

Mauritanians on Saturday went to the polls as the outgoing

president’s preferred successor faced five opposition candidates in this West

African nation threatened by Islamic extremism. It is expected to be the

country’s first peaceful transfer of power.

One candidate of sub-Saharan African descent wants to

improve race relations in a country where activists estimate tens of thousands

of people still live in slavery despite the practice being banned by the

government for decades.

Amnesty International has called on the next president to

end rampant human rights abuses in this coastal Saharan nation of 4.5 million

people.

“Anyone who dares to stand up against slavery,

discrimination and other human rights violations and abuses is at risk of

arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention and even torture,” said Kine Fatim Diop, a

West Africa campaigner for the rights organization.

Mauritania has suffered five coups since independence from

France in 1960 and has been led by military rulers for much of that time.

President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz himself was head of the presidential guard

when he seized power in a 2008 coup. He said he did so to prevent a return to

repressive military rule.

He won a landslide election the following year in what

opponents called a fraudulent “electoral coup.” Most opposition parties then

boycotted the 2014 election in which Aziz won 82 percent of the vote according

to official results.

The president is barred by the constitution from seeking

another term. In respecting term limits instead of seeking to change the

constitution he contrasts with several leaders elsewhere in Africa in recent

years.

His successor of choice is former Defense Minister Mohamed

Ould El Ghazouani, a retired general who served as chief of staff of

Mauritania’s armed forces.

Ghazouani was chosen by the ruling majority as a

presidential candidate after his retirement. He has campaigned on his security

credentials and the outgoing president’s record on fighting Islamic extremists.

“Mauritania has to choose between Mohamed Ould El Ghazouani

— who wants to strive toward security, development and progress — or vote for a

return to insecurity, bad management and corruption where there is hate, racism

and destruction of national unity,” the outgoing president said at a press

conference marking the end of campaigning.

This moderate Islamic republic borders Mali, where jihadist

rule forced tens of thousands to flee the country’s north to Mauritania in

2012. While the security situation has deteriorated in Mali even after the

extremists were ousted from control, Mauritania has not seen the spillover in

violence experienced by Mali’s other neighbors Niger and Burkina Faso.

Mauritania is a member of the G5 Sahel regional

counterterrorism force, which was established in 2017 but has been plagued by

funding problems.

The opposition candidates in this election include

anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, who was elected to Parliament in

September from his prison cell, where he was held on charges his supporters

called politically motivated. He was released late last year after serving four

months.

Mauritania was the last country to abolish slavery, doing so

in 1981, but did not criminalize it until 2007. Late last year the United

States ended trade benefits with Mauritania, saying the country is not making

sufficient progress toward combating forced labor, including slavery.

The Mauritanian government, however, denies that slavery is

widespread.

Candidate Kane Hamidou Baba of the “Living Together”

coalition is representing parties backed by Mauritanians of sub-Saharan African

descent.

Other candidates include Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, a

two-time former prime minister who is supported by the opposition Islamist

party; Mohamed Ould Maouloud, candidate of the Opposition Coalition for Change

and Mohamed Lemine El Mourteji Wafi, who hopes to draw the support of younger

Mauritanians.

A runoff election will take place next month if no one

receives a majority of votes on Saturday.





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