{"id":13523,"date":"2018-09-01T19:28:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T19:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13523"},"modified":"2018-09-01T19:28:15","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T19:28:15","slug":"mauritania-votes-in-legislative-and-municipal-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13523","title":{"rendered":"Mauritania votes in legislative and municipal elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Voters in Mauritania<\/a> are casting ballots in legislative, regional and local elections that will test President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz’s record before next year’s presidential vote.<\/p>\n

Polls opened at 07:00 GMT on Saturday in the capital, Nouakchott, but several voters were sent to different polling stations due to last minute changes.\u00a0<\/span>Voting ends at\u00a019:00 GMT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The opposition boycotted the last polls in 2013 but a record 98 parties are taking part this time,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>with close to 5,000 people running for the National Assembly alone.<\/p>\n

The vote, which is monitored by African Union<\/a> observers, is unfolding calmly and amid tight security.<\/p>\n

Military personnel cast their ballots Friday to free themselves up to provide security in the vast and arid West African state with a registered electorate of some 1.4 million.<\/p>\n

Aziz hailed the “peaceful and democratic nature” of the ballot after casting his vote but Mohamed Ould Moloud<\/span>, a leading opposition figure,<\/span>\u00a0deplored logistical snags and hinted the outcome could be flawed.<\/p>\n

“There are voters who have been misdirected and don’t know where to vote,” he said, adding that there were “serious signs of possible fraud”.<\/p>\n

Veteran opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, who heads the Gathering for Democracy (RFD), has urged voters to make “the necessary leap to get rid of dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy”.<\/p>\n

The ruling Union for the Republic is campaigning largely on changes it made in the 2017 constitution, abolishing the Senate and bringing in a new national anthem and flag. Voters endorsed the controversial measures in a referendum, while the opposition warned they would give the president more power.<\/p>\n

Final results of Saturday’s election could be released as early as Monday.\u00a0<\/span>Potential runoff elections<\/a> would take place on September 15.<\/p>\n

“I voted for people I support in different parties, including some from the ruling party and others in the opposition,” a woman, who identified herself as Fatimatou, told AFP news agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

Challenges<\/h2>\n

Aziz, 61, who came to power in a coup in 2008, won elections in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term.<\/p>\n

He has been frequently accused by opposition figures and NGOs of rights abuses, including the arrest of a former senator and the “secretive” detention of a blogger.<\/p>\n

Aziz says he will not seek a third mandate, which would be against the Constitution, but statements by ministers and supporters have allowed suspicions to flourish.<\/p>\n

The president has criticised opposition leaders as “villains” and “troublemakers”.<\/p>\n

He has described some as “dangerous Islamists, racist extremists and the leftovers of former regimes which brought the country to its knees”.<\/p>\n

Mauritania, like other nations in the region, faces a growing threat from armed groups as well as the day-to-day challenge of underdevelopment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters in Mauritania are casting ballots in legislative, regional and local elections that will test President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz’s record before next year’s presidential vote. Polls opened at 07:00 GMT on Saturday in the capital, Nouakchott, but several voters were sent to different polling stations due to last minute changes.\u00a0Voting ends at\u00a019:00 GMT.\u00a0 The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}