MAURITANIA: Runoff rivals pledge change as Mauritania votes

Mauritanians went to the polls on Sunday (March 25) to vote for a civilian president to replace their ruling military junta, with the two contenders promising to promote social justice and development in the Arab-African state. The run-off between former technocrat Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and opposition veteran Ahmed Ould Daddah followed an inconclusive first round two weeks ago in the former French colony on the Sahara's western edge. The turnout of voters on Sunday appeared to be lower than expected, election officials said. Counting began almost immediately once polling stations closed in the dusty capital Nouakchott and around the largely desert nation -- sometimes after waiting for evening prayers. Voting appeared to have gone smoothly and no major incidents were reported. Provisional results were not expected before Monday. The election of a civilian president seals a democratic handover by the junta which seized power in a bloodless 2005 coup -- the third military putsch since independence in 1960. The two candidates -- both economists and members of the white Moorish elite which dominates Mauritania -- pledged to improve living standards and end inequality among the 3 million population that mixes white and black Moors and black Africans. Hopes for change are high in a country twice the size of France, which despite rich fisheries, minerals and oil still suffers from widespread poverty and simmering racial tensions. Foreign observers hailed the handover of power as a rare case of a coup that helped bring, rather than cut short, democracy. Both candidates have said they will review diplomatic ties with Israel -- a rare relationship in the Arab world which many Mauritanians want to end.

ITN Source | March 26, 2007

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