MAURITANIA: Islamists confident of entering parliament as Mauritania awaits results from first round of polls

Record ID: 837470

  • Title: MAURITANIA: Islamists confident of entering parliament as Mauritania awaits results from first round of polls
  • Date: 26th November 2013
  • Summary: NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA (NOVEMBER 23, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HEAD OF POLLING STATION STATION OPENING BALLOT BOX AND POURING BALLOT PAPERS ON TABLE VARIOUS OF BALLOT PAPER COUNTING NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA (NOVEMBER 25, 2013) (REUTERS) NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF TAWASSOUL PARTY OFFICIALS, TAWASSOUL PARTY PRESIDENT JAMIL OULD MANSOUR IN THE MIDDLE, SEATING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE FEMALE AND MALE TAWASSOUL PARTY SUPPORTERS AT THE NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) JAMIL OULD MANSOUR , TAWASSOUL PARTY PRESIDENT SAYING: "We have either won or we are going to a second round, or we have a respectable number of votes from all corners of Mauritania, from East to South, North and all other parts of Mauritania." MORE OF TAWASSOUL PARTY SUPPORTERS AT NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF VIDEO JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE MORE OF TAWASSOUL OFFICIALS AT NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS FILMING NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF TAWASSOUL OFFICIALS SEATING ASIDE THEIR PRESIDENT (SOUNDBITE) (French) JAMIL OULD MANSOUR, TAWASSOUL PARTY PRESIDENT SAYING: "We have plans that will touch on many spheres including politics, national unity, the fight against slavery, restructuring the economy, and to look after the poorest in the country, the question of high food prices, management of public funds, the fight against mismanagement of public funds. But unlike the so called fight that Aziz was leading against the mismanagement of public funds, this will be a serious and credible fight, with men and women who do not have a past in mismanaging public funds."
  • Embargoed: 11th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mauritania
  • City:
  • Country: Mauritania
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAUSDEGO90FVG3NP7YTOV7MWKC
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  • Story Text: Voters in Mauritania went to the polls in Saturday (November 23) in legislative and local elections expected to bring a once-outlawed Islamist party into parliament for the first time.
    The legislative polls - the first since a 2008 army putsch - are being boycotted by most of the West African nation's opposition parties.
    They refuse to recognise the authority of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who led the bloodless coup claiming the previous President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was incapable of tackling the economic problems squeezing Mauritania's mostly poor inhabitants.
    Candidates allied to current president Abdel Aziz, who won a presidential election in 2009 and is now a key ally of the West in the fight against al Qaeda in the region, are tipped to secure a comfortable majority but the Islamist Tawassoul party says it is certain of a win, in the first or second round.
    There were just three opposition parties taking part in the vote.
    Banned by the government until 2007, the Tawassoul party's ideology broadly mirrors that of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political platform calls for "respect for sharia (law) and the rejection of everything which violates it".
    "We have either won or we are going to a second round, or we have a respectable number of votes from all corners of Mauritania, from East to South, North and all other parts of Mauritania," said Jamil Ould Mansour, head of the Tawassoul party, at a news conference in Nouakchott on Monday (November 25).
    Having declared itself prepared for a "revolution via the ballot box" last year, it is seeking to win out against the two other opposition groupings participating in the polls, the APP and Al-Wiam, to claim leadership of the parliamentary opposition.
    "We have plans that will touch on many spheres including politics, national unity, the fight against slavery, restructuring the economy, and to look after the poorest in the country, the question of high food prices, management of public funds, the fight against mismanagement of public funds. But unlike the so called fight that Aziz was leading against the mismanagement of public funds, this will be a serious and credible fight, with men and women who do not have a past in mismanaging public funds," said Mansour.
    In light of the boycott, many anticipated a low turnout reflecting disaffection among voters in the poor, mainly Muslim nation with their political elite.
    Voting on the day was also hampered in some areas when polling stations opened late while some voters also complained of difficulties finding their names on voter lists.
    However, state-owned television TVM announced late on Saturday that more than 60 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots.
    Analysts say that in the face of the boycott, Tawassoul could emerge as a strong contender.
    "It's certain that with the current economic and political situation, the Tawassoul, a party of Islamists seems will be the first opposition party. But you need to put things in perspective, especially given that the country's main opposition parties did not take part in these elections, Tawassoul does not stand to gain much, not even the 5 percent needed in the national assembly," said Moussa Ould Hamed, director of a weekly newspaper, Biladi.
    Although Mauritania has been stable politically since Abdel Aziz seized power in 2008, it lies on the fringes of the Sahara Desert where Islamist gunmen hold increasing sway.
    As the head of one of West Africa's more effective armies, Abel Aziz ordered military strikes against Islamist bases in neighboring Mali in 2010 and 2011, provoking threats of revenge from the al Qaeda-linked fighters.
    Those Islamist groups now occupy the northern two-thirds of Mali after hijacking a Tuareg rebellion there earlier this year and launching a rapid offensive in the wake of a military coup in the capital Bamako.
    "I think that we are in the process of creating a monster, without realising it. The day that Tawassoul will be cemented or will have the opportunity be be fully cemented in Mauritania's political life, then it could lead to a lot of damage," added Hamed.
    Official results are expected within days. A second round of voting is scheduled for December 7 for those contests in which no candidate wins an outright first round victory.
    Straddling black and Arab Africa on the continent's west coast, Mauritania, a country of 3.2 million people, is an iron ore, copper and gold producer with a budding offshore oil and gas sector.
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