Mauritanians celebrate postponement of elections

Jun 3, 2009, 10:36 GMT

Nouakchott - Mauritanians on Wednesday welcomed an agreement by the northwest African country's main political factions to postpone elections scheduled for Saturday to July 18.

A large crowd welcomed the negotiators at Nouakchott airport as they arrived in the early morning hours from the Senegalese capital Dakar, where they had agreed to form a transitional government.

The African Union, European Union, Arab League and United Nations had been mediating in the negotiations aimed at persuading the opposition to participate in the elections.

Major opposition parties had announced a boycott of the vote, describing it as a charade to sweep former junta leader Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz to power.

Abdel Aziz ousted Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who was regarded as Mauritania's first democratically elected president, in a bloodless coup in August 2008.

Abdel Aziz later stepped down as junta leader to contest the elections, handing power to senate president Ba Mamadou Mbare, who became Mauritania's first black head of state since the desert country straddling Arab and black Africa became independent from France in 1960.

With major opposition parties boycotting the elections, Abdel Aziz would only have faced three challengers who were deemed to have no chances against him.

The Abdel Aziz camp and the main opposition formations, National Front of the Defence of Democracy (FNDD) and Assembly of Democratic Forces (RFD), agreed to form a national union government within a week after their agreement would be signed formally on Wednesday.

The Abdel Aziz faction will appoint the prime minister and half of the cabinet members, with the opposition appointing the other half, including the finance, interior and communication ministers.

A new electoral commission will reorganize the elections.

RFD leader Ahmed Ould Daddah described the agreement as 'the victory of reason against violence.'

Many Mauritanians had feared unrest if the elections went ahead on Saturday.

Mauritania had experienced a string of coups and the 1984-2005 dictatorship of Maaouya Ould Taya in the decades following independence.

Abdallahi's election as president in March 2007 appeared to set the country on the road towards consolidating democracy, but Abdel Aziz dashed such hopes.

His coup was condemned widely by the international community, with the African Union imposing sanctions on Mauritania and the European Union suspending cooperation with the country.

Opposition supporters staged demonstrations against the planned elections, accusing the junta of unilaterally imposing the electoral agenda, until such rallies were banned.

Despite criticism of his democratic credentials, Abdel Aziz was seen as enjoying a certain popularity among the poorer social classes.