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Mission Mauritanie 2006

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Posté le 11 décembre 2006 par Webmaster (Contacter l'auteur)

11 décembre 2006 - Euronews

Landmark vote closes in Mauritania

Mauritania has taken an historic step towards a free election one year after a military junta staged a bloodless coup. In the capital Nouakchott long queues of people waited hours to get to the ballot boxes. The large but mainly-desert Islamic Republic is among the world’s poorest countries. But this vote, and the discovery of off-shore oil reserves five years ago has fuelled hopes of prosperity. Just over a million registered voters have been choosing candidates, a fifth of whom must be women.

Among around 500 observers overseeing the vote is French Green Party MP Marianne Isler Beguin. She says that the process has been satisfactory but that she’d noticed some strange practices such as campaigning in front of polling stations. There have been no major complaints from NGOs on the ground. The head of the junta leading the country, Colonel Ely Ould Mohammed Vall, pledged to bring free elections after ousting last August an authoritarian regime that had ruled for 20 years.

In a country with a high illiteracy rate, help was on hand for those unfamiliar with voting procedure.

23 Novembre 2006 - Middle East

Mauritania opposition wins first stage of vote

Coalition of opposition wins more than half of 43 seats in first round of parliamentary elections.

By Hademine Ould Sadi - NOUAKCHOTT

A coalition of opposition parties was in the lead Thursday after the first round of parliamentary elections in Mauritania, but more than half the seats on offer will go to a second round of voting.

The coalition, set up this year to oppose the former ruling party, won more than half of the 43 parliamentary seats that have been decided so far in Sunday’s vote to elect lawmakers after a military coup last year overthrew the west African nation’s autocratic regime.

However of 95 seats available, 52 will have to go to a run-off on December 3 after no candidates for them won the 50 percent of the vote needed for an outright majority.

Coup leaders pledged a transition to civilian democracy and promised to step down within 19 months of ousting Maaouiya Ould Taya, the authoritarian ruler of one of Africa’s largest but sparsely populated countries, in August 2005.

A referendum five months ago, the first major poll of the transition process, overwhelmingly approved a new democratic constitution and presidential elections are to be held in March after senatorial polls scheduled for January.

The party which emerged with the greatest number of seats in the coalition is the Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD) led by Ahmed Ould Daddah, an economist and veteran politician who was repeatedly jailed for criticising the Taya regime.

The RFD secured 12 seats in the assembly’s lower house.

Daddah had earlier in the week declared that his party would emerge the leading political force in the impoverished country of three million inhabitants.

International pool watchers including the European Union and the International Organisation of French Speaking countries (OIF) hailed the polls as free and fair, but were disturbed by the number of spoilt ballots.

"The elections were carried out in ... a free, open and fair political environment," said Marie-Anne Isler Beguin, head of the EU’s election observation mission.

Burundi’s former leader Pierre Buyoya, leading observers from OIF said that "these elections, which were carried out in good conditions, constitute an important step for the country’s return to democracy."

Power has never changed hands through elections in this former French colony, whose history has been chequered by coups and military takeovers since independence in 1960.

To guarantee transparency, none of the members of the ruling junta are allowed to participate in the elections.

Some 73 percent of the more than one million eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots to elect 95 lawmakers for the national assembly and 219 municipal councillors.

For first time ever, a 20 percent quota was reserved for female politicians in this traditional conservative Muslim society, while Islamists, barred from politics by previous regimes, made their debut in the elections.

Opposition parties also took the largest share - about 63 percent - of the local government seats.

Mauritanians are among some of the poorest people in the world, but extraction of oil which begun this year, is expected to change their fortunes.

22 Novembre 2006 - News24

EU : Mauritanian elections fair 22/11/2006 18:44 - (SA)

Nouakchott - European Union (EU) observers commended on Wednesday the good conduct of weekend parliamentary and municipal elections held after a military coup, saying there were no major irregularities.

"The elections were carried out in ... a free, open and fair political environment," said Marie-Anne Isler Beguin, head of the EU’s election observation mission, which deployed 87 observers to Mauritania.

After a new constitution was adopted in June, the November 19 elections were the first in a series of votes that will pass power to civilians as promised by the military junta that overthrew president Maaouiya Ould Taya in August 2005.

"The campaign took place in a hospitable manner, the voting operations in transparency and respect for procedures, despite the large number of void ballots," which the observers attributed to a lack of voter education in the poor west African country.

About 500 observers, including 200 foreigners, were deployed in the 13 regions of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, two thirds of which are desert land, for the elections.

95 parliamentary seats up for grabs

On Tuesday, Burundi’s former president Pierre Buyoya, leading observers from the International Organisation of French Speaking Countries (OIF), said that "these elections, which were carried out in good conditions, constitute an important step for the country’s return to democracy".

The vote count continued very slowly on Wednesday in the compilation office at the ministry of the interior, which announced on national radio that the complete results would be announced in the evening.

But of 95 parliamentary seats that were up for grabs, more than half will have to go to a run-off because no candidates for those seats attained 50% of the vote, according to a government source.

The second round of polling is due on December 3.

Of the partial results published so far, the various opposition parties and independent Islamists combined have won more seats than the former ruling party of Taya.

To cap the transitional process to civilian democracy, presidential elections are to be held in March after senatorial polls slated for January.

20 Novembre 2006 - BBC

Mauritania counts election votes

Turnout was reported to be high Votes are being counted after Mauritania’s first election since last year’s bloodless coup ended 20 years of authoritarian rule. Officials say two opposition groups - one representing former slaves - and the former ruling party are doing well in votes counted so far.

Observers say the poll passed off without incident.

Members of the military junta which seized power were banned from contesting the elections.

Turnout was said to be high and long queues formed even before polls opened.

"The vote functioned well throughout the country," said Marie-Anne Isler Beguin, head of the European Union’s observer mission.

’Satisfied’

Voters were choosing 95 MPs and more than 200 local councils.

Military rule is due to end in March with presidential elections.

The party of former slaves is reported to be doing well Slavery was formally abolished in Mauritania as recently as 1981.

The Progressive Popular Alliance (APP) was set up to represent them, saying they remained marginalised.

The Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD), led by well-known opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, is also reported to be doing well, along with the Republican Party for Democracy and Renewal (PRDR), which governed the country prior to last year’s coup.

After casting his vote, junta leader Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall said he was "satisfied to see Mauritanians embark on the road to democracy and consequently on the way to economic development and political stability".

In June, turnout was also high in a referendum on a new constitution which, among other things, put a two-term limit on any future president.

At least 28 political parties were competing to be represented in the National Assembly - although only five parties were considered to be front-runners.

But Islamist parties and movements, considered to be among the most popular in the country, have been banned.

This has resulted in many Islamist candidates standing as independents.

19 Novembre - Political Gateway

Mauritania vote tests move to democracy

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, Nov. 19 (UPI) — Mauritania’s parliamentary and municipal elections were reported smooth and fraud-free Sunday in the impoverished African nation’s first vote in decades. "We have not seen fraud," chief European Union observer Marie Anne Isler Beguin told the BBC. About 500 domestic and international observers were supervising the elections. Turnout was reported high, with voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots. At least 28 political parties competed for seats in the 95-member lower house of parliament, although five parties were considered front-runners. Islamist parties and movements, among the most popular in the country, were banned. The country’s military rulers have pledged the election will usher in a new era after their bloodless coup in August 2005 toppled the 21-year rule of President Maaouya Ould Taya. More than a million people were eligible to vote in the desert country of 3 million that straddles black and Arab Africa in the west of the Sahara.

le site de la Mission d’observation électorale européenne en Mauritanie