The people of Mauritania will head to the polls on Saturday to select their next president. The election will see the first democratic transition of power since the West African country achieved independence in 1960. More than a million people are eligible to vote in the election.
President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who seized power in a coup in 2008, has agreed to step down and abide by a two-term limit of office. The 62-year-old went on to win elections in 2009 and 2014.
Mohamed Ahmed Ould Ghazouani, the country’s defense minister and a close ally of the current president, is the most promising among the six candidates who are competing for the presidency, reported BBC. Ghazouani is also backed by the ruling elite in his bid for the presidency.
The other five other candidates include former Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, and a well-known activist and anti-slavery campaigner, Biram Dah Abeid, veteran opposition figure Mohamed Ould Moloud, journalist Baba Hamidou Kane and political newcomer Mohamed Lemine El-Mourteji El-Wavi.
Boubacar, who is Ghazouani’s main challenger, hopes to win enough support to secure a runoff vote on July 6.
According to a poll conducted by the Mauritanian Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (CMERS), among 1,300 people in the capital, Nouakchott, last week, nearly 30 percent of voters are willing to vote for Ghazouani and 23 percent for Boubacar.
Mauritania’s electoral commission has promised a free and fair election, despite claims by the opposition that it is biased in favor of the governing party.
Mauritania became the final country in the world to formally abolish slavery in 1981. But, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, 2 percent of its people still live as slaves.
If Saturday’s election ends with no clear winner, a run-off election is due to be held on 6 July.
