Mauritanian leader, opposition trade pre-election barbs

By Mohamed al-Bakay

NOUAKCHOTT

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz traded barbs with opposition leaders this week in advance of legislative and municipal polls slated for Saturday. At a final electoral rally held by his Union for the Republic (UFR) party on Thursday evening, Ould Abdel Aziz criticized opposition parties, several of which he accused of corruption.

“We must fight corruption, extremism, sedition and the erosion of gains that the Mauritanian people have realized over the last decade,” he said while addressing thousands of supporters in capital Nouakchott.

He vowed to use “all legal means” at his disposal to win a “comfortable” parliamentary majority in Saturday’s polls.

Shortly afterward, Mauritania’s main opposition coalition held a press conference elsewhere in the capital to respond to Ould Abdel Aziz’s assertions, which, it said in a joint statement, “reveal the president’s insecurity on the eve of the elections”.

Speaking at the press conference, Mohamed Ould Maouloud, leader of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces Party, also warned against the possibility of vote-rigging in Saturday’s polls.

“The opposition will not accept any fraud or manipulation of poll results and will firmly resist any attempts to do so,” he asserted.

On Saturday, almost 100 Mauritanian political parties will vie for seats on the country’s 146-member legislative assembly and on numerous municipal councils.

For the first time ever, parties will also compete for seats on Mauritania’s 13 regional councils.

According to official figures, some 1.4 million Mauritanians are registered to vote in the upcoming polls.

While opposition figures have questioned the integrity of the electoral process, the government -- led by Ould Abdel Aziz’s UFR -- has promised to hold “free and transparent” elections.