Mauritania

In June 2006 Mauritania held a referendum on amendments to the 1991 constitution. Mauritanians voted overwhelmingly to limit the president’s mandate to two five-year terms. (The constitution had allowed the president to serve an indefinite number of six-year terms.)

Mauritania held its first fully democratic elections since independence with voting in November and December 2006 for a new National Assembly. No single party or coalition won an absolute majority in the elections. The Coalition of Forces for Democratic Change, comprising the Rally of Democratic Forces and other parties that had formerly opposed Taya, won 41 of the 95 seats. Independent candidates won 39 seats, the Renewed Republican Democratic Party (formerly Taya’s ruling Democratic and Social Republican Party) won 7, and smaller parties won the remainder. Many Islamist candidates stood as independents because Islamist parties and movements were banned. Members of the military junta were also banned from contesting the elections.

Presidential elections followed in March 2007, as the final phase in the transition to civilian and democratic rule. The independent candidate, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, won the runoff election with 53 percent of the vote against Ahmed Ould Daddah, leader of the Rally of Democratic Forces. Abdallahi, a former minister in Taya’s government, was considered the favorite candidate of the military. An election observation mission of the European Union (EU) determined that Mauritania’s historic elections were free and fair.