GOVERNMENT
Mauritania held a series of elections that began in November 2006 with a parliamentary vote and culminated March 25, 2007 with the second round of the presidential election. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was elected President and took office on April 19, 2007. After almost 16 months of civilian rule, President Abdallahi was deposed on August 6, 2008 by a military-led coup, which derailed Mauritania's new-found democracy.
The opposition organized under the Front National Pour la Defense de la Democratie (FNDD), an umbrella organization of anti-coup parties, and opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah's Rassemblement des Forces Democratiques (RFD). These groups joined forces to organize coup protests and to boycott unilateral elections organized by the junta for June 6, 2009. General Aziz governed the country at the head of the HSC until April 2009, when he resigned both from the government and the military to run for president in the controversial planned June 6 elections. Senate President Ba Mamadou M'Bare, an Afro-Mauritanian, was appointed interim President, and the HSC was relegated to a national security role. Mauritania's 10-month-long political stalemate ended with the signature on June 4 by the three parties to the crisis--the Aziz camp, the FNDD, and the RFD--of an accord brokered by Senegalese President Wade, the African Union, and the international community in Dakar. The Dakar Accord called for President Abdallahi's return to form a consensual Transitional Government of National Unity and sign his resignation, which would open the way to constitutionality. The new government would organize elections on July 18 under the supervision of the international community.
After delays implementing the accord, which stemmed from disagreements about the future of the HSC, Abdallahi returned to form a Transitional Government of National Unity and resigned on June 27, 2009. In this interim government, the pro-coup camp, also known as "the majority," appointed the Prime Minister and 50% of the government, whereas the opposition controlled the remaining half, including the Ministry of Interior and Communications. The opposition also controlled two-thirds of the National Independent Electoral Commission. Presidential elections took place on July 18, with General Aziz scoring a first-round victory with over 53% of the popular vote. Three presidential candidates contested the result but the Government of National Unity, international observers, and the international community declared the elections free and fair.
Government bureaucracy is composed of ministries, special agencies, and parastatal companies. The Ministry of Interior controls a system of regional governors and prefects modeled on the French system of local administration. Under this system, Mauritania is divided into 13 regions (wilaya), including the capital district, Nouakchott. Control is tightly concentrated in the executive branch of the central government, but a series of national and municipal elections since 1992 have produced some decentralization, and efforts to decentralize the government continue.
Politics in Mauritania have always been heavily influenced by the military and by "strong men" or personalities. A leader's ability to exercise political power depends upon control over resources; financial means; perceived strength; and tribal, ethnic, and family considerations. Conflict among White Moor, Black Moor, and Black African Mauritanian groups, centering on unequal access to power, government, education, and land tenure, continues to be a major challenge to national unity. Slavery, and the repatriation and compensation of victims from the 89-90 purges of Afro-Mauritanians known as the "passif humanitaire," are still socio-political issues awaiting resolution. Political parties, illegal during the military period, were legalized again in 1991.
Principal Government Officials
President--Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz
Prime Minister--Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation--Naha Mint Mouknass
Minister of Economy and Development--Sidi Ould Tah
Minister of Finance--Ousmane Kane
Ambassador to the United Nations--Abdelrahim Ould Elhadrami
Ambassador to the United States--vacant
Mauritania maintains an embassy in the United States at 2129 Leroy
Place NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 202-232-5700, fax. 202-232-5701)
and a Permanent Mission to the United Nations at 211 East 43rd
Street, Suite 2000, New York, NY 10017 (tel. 212-986-7963, fax.212-986-8419).
Government
Type: Republic.
Independence: November 28, 1960.
Constitution: Approved 1991. Original constitution promulgated 1961.
Branches: Executive--president (head of state). Legislative--bicameral national assembly, directly elected lower house (81 members), and upper house (56 members) chosen indirectly by municipal councilors. Judicial--a supreme court and lower courts are nominally independent but subject to control of executive branch; judicial decisions are rendered mainly on the basis of Shari'a (Islamic law) for social/family matters and a western style legal code, applied in commercial and some criminal cases.
Political parties: 21.
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
National day: November 28, Independence Day.
