Mauritania: House of elders say tribalism and the influence of money did not change the democratic nature of the election of the House of Elders and the independents

 
There is a media and international focus on the upcoming presidential elections which will be held next march. Mauritanian politicians, leaders and political parties describe these elections as a transitional phase toward a modern and democratic Mauritania, a phase by which the country will go beyond the phase of the military coups which did not allow the country to become part of the regional and international activities that followed the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the rise of new   
International economic theories.
Foreign governments view the presidential elections that will be held in March 2007 as a test of the promise made by the military tribunal of handing over power to a democratic government.
It seems that the feeling of the Mauritanian citizens of the need for a stable country and consistent national economy as well as the improvement of the living, educational, health and other conditions from which the Mauritanian people have been suffering have made it possible to understand the need for democratic elections, whether the house of Elders elections or the presidential elections. 
Observers said that the House of Elders elections were respected because they were democratic elections. However, other observers believe that the absence of social diversity has opened the door for former political forces in the country which possessed the ability to read the geography of the country and the needs of citizens.
The popular activity was collective, and Mauritanians, even observers, did not feel that there was a tense climate as a result of competition as usually happens under such circumstances. However, viewing Mauritania as an exceptional case in the Arab region and the African continent could prompt all the political forces in Mauritania to exercise self-restraint, particularly concerning what is being said about the role of the military in the elections.
Observers also believe that the House of Elders elections have upset the balance and were accompanied with surprises which no one expected. The trend of these elections contradicted the parliamentary and municipal elections held in the last two months of 2006 and which led to a significant winning of the former opposition forces.
The elections produced a significant winning of the independents and a painful and sudden loss for the former opposition forces represented in the conglomeration of the coalition of the forces of change which consists of nine political parties and forces, particularly in the capital city and in the big cities where the opposition enjoys the majority.
Despite the significant winning of the independents in the elections of the first parliament, the share of the opposition was larger and its voice was louder. This made the opposition declare that it constituted the major force in the new parliament and that it would lead the country in the upcoming phase.
It is noteworthy that the members of the House of Elders are not elected directly, but are elected through the municipal advisors who were directly elected by all the citizens. What has happened then? Was it a coup by the big voters against the will of the small voters who were elected, or was it that certain political parties and forces finally voted for competing foes and trends?
The presidential elections remain the last process to be held within a series of electoral processes that were decided last year. The presidential elections will conclude a transitional phase of 19 months that began with the military coup that toppled former President Ould Taya in August 2005.
This report gives a summary of the electoral activities in Mauritania last month and in early February 2007. The summary involves the House of Elders elections and the presidential elections, each separately.
The elections of the House of Elders
The second Run: the independents win 23 seats and the political parties won only 11 seats:
On 4 February 2007, the second run of the House of Elders elections were held in 15 electoral constituencies. The elections were begun at 700 hours in the morning and ended at 1900 hours in the evening of the same day.
In this election run, 15 out of the 56 House of Elders members of this Mauritanian Parliamentary Chamber were elected. 38 of these members of the House of Elders were elected in the first run of elections three weeks earlier. Women participation in the first run reached 15.78 per cent. Winners in the two rounds will elect in the upcoming sessions of the House of Elders the three remaining members for the chamber as representatives of Mauritanians abroad.
The final results of the House of Elders elections showed that the independents won most of the seats of the House at the expense of the political parties. Mauritanian Interior Minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine said that the independents managed to win 23 seats and that the political parties could not win more than 11 seats while the coalition of the independents and the political parties, which is spearheaded by the independents, won four seats, and this means that the four seats will go to the independents.
The Interior Minister explained that the alliance of the democratic forces which is headed by Ahmed Ould Dadah was at the forefront of the political parties by winning four seats while the former ruling Republican Party came second in rank among the political parties by winning three seats.
The lists submitted by the Coalition of the Forces of Change which included the former opposition won three seats while the Union of the Forces of Progress which is led by Mohammed Ould Mawloud won one seat only.  The Centrist Reformists (Islamists) who nominated themselves as independents as a result of banning them from forming a political party won three seats. The Mauritanian Interior Minister said that the rate of participation in these elections reached 98.24 per cent and that the number of the revoked ballots totaled 32 or a rate of 0.88 per cent while 15 out of a total of 3623 voters gave neutral votes. He said that women won nine seats or a rate of 15.78 per cent.
The Mauritanian Minister said that the first round of elections did not decide the winners in 15 out of the 53 electoral constituencies in which the elections were held and that this meant that a second round would be held in the 15 constituencies on 4 February 2007. It is noteworthy that the voters for the House of Elders chamber consist of municipal advisors totaling 3688.
These results were contradictory with the expectations and constituted a strong blow to the forces of the opposition which only managed to win 10 seats out of a total of 38 seats. Opposition circles and leaders said in a statement that the reason for the opposition setback was the extensive use of money in the elections and the buying off of the votes of the voters in addition to the extensive tribal pressure.
Member of the Independent Committee for Elections, Somari Val, said in a statement to the Al-Jazirah space channel that the committee did not record any significant violations up till the late evening of the polling day and that elections were held under good and normal conditions. Representatives of the three said in statements t the Al-Jazirah Net that they were satisfied with the climate under which the voting was held. However, the municipal advisor representing the opposition Popular Alliance, Ayshah bint al-Mawlud, told Al-Jazirah Net that she came under strong pressure by the independents to buy off her vote, but she resisted against these attempts which she described as unethical.
The Mithaq [Charter] alliance wins most seats of the House of Elders
Official results of the second round of the House of Elders elections have confirmed the hegemony by the former majority presidential alliance of the house of elders by winning 11 out of the 15 seats.
The Interior Ministry said that the independents who were members of the Mithaq alliance, which constituted the majority in the era of former President Mu’awiyah Ould Taya won 37 seats, while the former opposition Alliance of the Democratic Forces of Change won 15 seats only.
Thus the Mithaq Alliance which constituted the majority of the national Assembly now constituted the majority by winning 55 seats in return for 41 seats won by the Alliance of the Democratic Forces of Change was now in control of the House of Elders by winning more than 70 per cent of the seats. The Interior Ministry explained that four House of Elders members still needed to be elected, i.e. three by the House of Elders members and one whose election was postponed because of violations committed in the election process.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement it issued that it was satisfied with the “excellent circumstances under which the elections were held.”
It should be recalled that the election campaign of the House of Elders elections started on the fifth of last month [January 2007) under strong competition among the political parties and nominated lists for these elections. An official of the national Committee for Elections said that the election campaign was held under satisfactory conditions.
The prime Minister’s office issued a decree fixing Sunday, 21 January 2007, as the date for voting on the nominees in the House of Elders elections and Sunday, 28 of the same month for a second run, if needed.
Nominations were deposited at the administrative authorities in the period from Thursday, 7 December 2006 until Friday, 22 December 2006. The nominees were given a provisional receipt for this deposit.
After studying the nominations by the administrative committee in charge of approving or disapproving the candidates, the nominees received a final receipt stating that they would enter the competitive elections of the House of Elders seats.
In preparation for holding the House of Elders elections, the Prime Minister’s office issued a decree summoning the voters to elect the elders.
The House of Elders and the national Assembly constitute the parliament and their members are elected for six years in a process of indirect balloting.
On the Mauritanian House of Elders
Each Mauritanian citizen enjoying his civil and political rights is entitled to be elected as member of the House of Elders if he is no less than 35 years old.
The law spells out the conditions for the election of the members of the House of Elders, their number and allowances. Another law on the conflict of interest spells out the conditions for the election of the persons who would replace a House of Elders member if his post becomes vacant.
The Constitutional Council shall settle the disputes on the correct election of parliament members but is not allowed to take measures against the elders or remand them in custody or arrest them or refer them to trial for the views they make or the way in which they vote when they are exercising their duties.
Without securing the permission of the chamber itself, the Elders may not be followed up or remanded in custody during the session of the House of Elders for criminal reasons or for committing misdemeanors, unless they are caught red-handed. Outside the sessions of the House of Elders, the elders may not be remanded in custody without the permission of the Chamber of the House of Elders unless the elder involved is caught red handed committing a crime or unless a final judicial sentence is issued against him.
The presidential elections
On 4 January 2007, a feverish presidential campaign was launched. It was the first presidential campaign at the end of the era of deposed President Mu’awayah Ould Sidi Ahmed Ould Taya.
Presidential candidates submitted diverse platforms and ideas to attract the voters. While some of them asserted their intention to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment and to consolidate the reforms begun by the military tribunal, other candidates found the issue of the relations with Israel a winning chip to attract the voters. They pledged to break off relations with Israel if they won the elections. One presidential candidate took advantage of the Mauritanian – Israeli normalization of relations which was signed by the incumbent Foreign Minister Ahmed Ould Sidi Ahmed in 1999 to win the favor of the ruling Military Council and to reassure the foreign partners that Mauritanian-Israeli relations would continue for the interest of the Mauritanian people.
It seemed that the issue of Mauritania’s relations with Israel was the dominant one. It prevailed over other issues which the candidates discussed briefly.  The candidates did not pay much attention to the living conditions, the wide-spread corruption, the bad management, the residues of slavery, the growth of tribalism and clannish trends. These problems have made the three million population of Mauritania live under crushing poverty, unemployment, illiteracy although the riches of their country are many and diverse.
The Military Council which led a coup against Ould Taya on 3 August 2003 is still declaring that it was not favoring one candidate over the other although the political parties are affirming the opposite and are viewing the political map that was produced by the parliamentary and municipal elections as the best example of its false claims. The independent nominations which the military tribunal encouraged has weakened the political parties and emptied them from their traditional leaders. Thus the political parties combined [the opposition and the loyal parties] won 54 seats out of a total of 95 seats of the House of Representatives while the independent lists won 41 seats. The elections have confirmed that the independents were now constituting a major force in the country at a time when the coalition of the opposition which consisted of eight parties could not win the simple majority in the new parliament specified at 48 seats, and won 41 seats only.
Observers believe that the Military Council encouraged independent candidates because it feared the return of the former ruling Republican Party which is superior to all the other parties because it has enormous funds or probably has feared the winning of an opposition leader who gave promises to his voters to open investigation on the spending of public funds and on corruption.
Candidates are afraid that the same thing might be repeated in the presidential elections and that the transitional government might support one of the independent candidates at the expense of the candidates of the political parties, particularly the opposition, which views these elections as a real test of its history and weight in the political arena after the absence of Ould Taya whom the opposition accused of rigging the elections for decades.
The presidential elections will be held on 11 March 2007 on the basis of the transitional platform that was approved by the Military Council for Justice and Democracy [the Council of Officers who led the coup on 3 August] in consultation with the political parties and the civil society organizations, particularly that a referendum on the constitution was held on 25 June 2006 and municipal and legislative elections were held on 19 November 2006. Meanwhile, the elections of the House of Elders will be held on 21 January 2007.
In their analysis, the Mauritanian newspapers noted that the most prominent event in the political arena was the declaration by the political parties and forces, which were part of the former regime, that they were forming an alliance called the Al-Mithaq [Charter] Alliance. These political parties and forces announced that they agreed on four principles which they described as principles representing the basis of a new republican contract opening the door for the dynamism of change. The most prominent of these principles, and perhaps the only important principle, was the agreement to nominate one candidate for the presidency in the 11 March elections.
Mauritania views neutral votes in the presidential elections as null and void
Amid the climate of the presidential elections, the Mauritanian government decided on l November to consider the neutral votes [the white ballots] in the upcoming presidential elections as null and voice contrary to the measure that was enforced in all past elections.
Mauritanian Communications Minister Sheikh Ould Abe said that this measure by the Mauritanian government introduces to the presidential elections a new definition of the concept of votes that are cast. According to the new definition, the votes no longer included the white ballots as was the case in the cancelled ballots.
The minister pointed out that this approach would settle the question and make it incumbent for one of the candidates in the presidential elections due to be held on 11 March to win the absolute majority so as to guarantee that the president of the republic is elected according to the law and to the will of the Mauritanian electorate. 
 The decision of the Mauritanian government would settle the controversy created by Mauritanian President Colonel Ali Ould Mohamed Val four days earlier when he said in a speech to the newly elected mayors that any presidential candidate who does not win the absolute majority (more than 50 per cent of the votes) in one of the two rounds will not be the winner.
Val also said in his speech that if any of the candidates does not win the absolute majority, the neutral votes will be counted and the army would act to organize new presidential elections because the voters turned down all the candidates and chose to be neutral, as he put it.         
The Mauritanian president also renewed his pledges of transparency and neutrality toward all the candidates. He said that he would not nominate himself for any political position in the country before the new president of the republic holds office. He also asserted that the Military Council will be neutral in the upcoming presidential elections.
Candidates
Some 21 candidates running for the presidential elections have deposited their documents at the Constitutional Council which is designated to receive and process these documents before the legal time fixed by the authorities, which is the dawn of 27 January 2007.
 
Aong the most important candidates was Ahmed Ould Dadah, the president of the Conglomeration of Democratic Forces, which is the largest political party. Another important candidate is former president Mohamed Khuna ould Hidaleh, the independent candidate Sidi Ould El Sheikh Abdullah, whom the opposition accuses the transitional authorities of supporting his candidacy.
Although he did not announce that he was running in the upcoming presidential elections, Ahmed Ould Dadah, president of the Conglomeration of the Democratic Forces, is regarded as the strongest candidate because he has a vast popularity, particularly in the ranks of the youth after his extreme opposition of the Ould Taya regime which made him go to prison in different occasions. Ould Dadah will utilize his past that was impregnated with achievements to attract the voters. These achievements are the thing which distinguishes Ould Dadah from other candidates since most of them had no political past or opposed the former regime.
Ten days after enacting a new constitution in Mauritania prohibiting the president to nominate himself for more than two terms, former Minister Sidi Ould El Sheikh Abdullah announced his nomination for the upcoming presidential elections which will be held in March. He said that the supreme interest of the country and its urgent need of a person who can lead the country and protect the current political climate have prompted him to participate in the upcoming elections.
Although his record was void of political achievements, observers assert that Abdullah enjoys a significant support by the Military Council and that he will score a great surprise in the elections.
There is another candidate who is no less powerful than Ould Dadah in terms of his strong opposition to Ould Taya. He is the leader of the Progressive Popular Alliance Party Masoud Ould Balkhair who represents an important segment of the Mauritanian population, a segment which suffered persecution and injustice under former regimes. It is the segment of the slaves whose members view Balkhair as its leader and savior.
There was another surprise which was seen in the announcement by former President Mohamed Khuna Ould Hidaleh that he was nominating himself in the presidential elections. He called on the voters to vote for him for a presidential term which he said that he wanted as a non-renewable term. He said that the motive behind nominating himself was the desire to “go along with the trend that has become apparent in the transitional period and to heed the call of conscience by accepting the desire of many citizens to nominate himself.”  
Although Hidaleh is a former President of Mauritania and one of its senior politicians who won 20 per cent of the votes in the last presidential elections in 2003, the repression and injustice which Mauritania witnessed during his rule from 1980 until 1984 was a good reason for excluding him from competition in these elections.
Another opposition candidate was Mohamed Ould Mawloud, president of the Union of the Forces of progress, whose candidacy increased the sharp competition among the opposition leaders and their coalition which failed to chose one single candidate in the presidential elections. Meanwhile, the number of independent candidates was on the rise. Perhaps the most prominent of these was the Governor of the Central bank Zein ould Zaidan, who expressed his support of keeping Mauritania’s relations with Israel, provided that these relations would be utilized in the service of Arab interests in general and the Palestinian issue in particular.
Moreover, Bamdou Alasen, president of the Mauritanian Justice and Democracy Party, announced his candidacy in the presidential elections, making him the first candidate of the Negro minority for the post of president for the first time in the history of the country which won its independence from France in 1960.  He said that he decided to nominate himself because all candidates were from the Arab majority who do not care about the problems of the Negro minority. He said that the only way for national unity is the respect of the rights of the Negro minority and the return of the Mauritanian refugees from Senegal together with the retrieval of their rights and property. He said that this was one of his most important priorities.
There were other presidential candidates who announced that they would run for elections such as Former Foreign Minister Dahan Ould Ahmed Mahmoud; the officer who participated in earlier coups Mohamed Ould Sheikhna; Former show performer and businesswoman Ayishah Bint Mohamed; the two journalists Mohamed Ahmed Ould Salihi and Ibranim Ould Abdullah; and president of the Democratic Social Union Aslamu Ould Al-Hanfi.
Although a total of 12 candidates announced their candidacy for the presidential elections, observers believe that the number will finally drop to seven candidates who will have their eyes focused on the Grey palace in which President Colonel Val is staying after the candidates who have slimmer chances of winning withdraw from the contest.
Observers are unanimous that none of these candidates can secure one third of the votes of the Mauritanians. The picture becomes bleaker when others assert that the new ruler of Mauritania is being prepared secretly and they do not exclude the possibility that he may be a businessman supported at best by those who are currently ruling Nouakchott so as to protect the gains that they have achieved. At worst, the new president would be supported by the wealth of Ould Taya which is scattered in Mauritania and kept in the banks of Europe. It was a wealth which took Ould Taya 12 years to collect in which he served as head of state of a country whose population is not more than 2.8 million people and is suffering from poverty, unemployment and illiteracy despite the fish, iron and gold resources.
THE support of Ould Taya of a businessman president was not based on the belief in the need for a “real democratic regime that should be established and that human rights and basic liberties and the improvement of management of public affairs should be upgraded” as was stated in the program of the constituent goals sought by the change of 3 August. Nor is it an attempt to offset the mistakes and wrongs of the past. It is a prelude to the return of the past after five years or perhaps less, all the more so because the constitution includes an article that reduces the presidential term to a renewable five-year term. It is something that cannot be excluded that we might see Ould Taya become president of the country five years from now. It is also something that cannot be excluded that Mauritania might be once again the focus of international events when a unit of its army decides to lead another coup as long as democracy is too difficult to achieve and as long as tribalism and factionalism prevailed and fairness and competence were discounted.
List of candidates for the presidential elections according to the classification of the Constitutional Council
List of names of candidates in the presidential elections according to the classification of the Constiutional Council:
 
1-          El Zain Ould Zaidan (Independent).
2-          Sidi Ould El Sheikh Abdullah (Independent).
3-          Molay El Hassan Ould El Jaid (Mauritanian Party for Renewal).
4-          Mohamed Ould Mawloud (Union of the Forces of Progress).
5-          Dahan Ould Ahmed Mahmoud (Independent).
6-          Ahmed Ould Dadah (Alliance of Democratic Forces).
7-          Mohamed Ahmed Ould Bab Ahmed Ould Salhi (Independent).
8-          Mohamed Khonah Ould Hidaleh (Independent).
9-          Aslam Ould Moustafa (Democratic Cooperation Party).
10-       Mohamed Ould Shaikhna (Independent).
11-       Masoud Ould Bou El Khair (Progressive Popular Alliance). 
12-       Saleh Ould Hanana (Mauritanian Union and Change Party).
13-       Mohamed Ould Mohamed El Mokhtar Ould El Toumi (Independent).
14-       Ba Mamdou El Hassan (Freedom, Justice and Equality Party).
15-       El Rajel Rasheed (Mauritanian Renewal Party).
16-       Mohamed Ould Gholam Ould Sedati (Independent).
17-       Sidi Ould Aslam Mohamed Ahiad (Independent).
18-       Osman Ould El Sheikh Abi El Ma’ali (Independent).
19-       Sarr Ibrahima (Independent).
20-       Ashbeih ould El Sheikh Maa’ El Aynayn (Popular Front).
21-       Osman Ould El Rasoul (Independent).
Issues, controversy and fears
Controversy intensified in the Mauritanian arena regarding rumors strongly and widely circulated by the political and popular rank and file sine mid January. According to the rumors, the incumbent provisional authorities were seeking to extend the transitional period. The authorities did not reply to these rumors, and this turned the rumors into accusations.
The opposition collectively sought to denounce any move in this direction. It voiced its firm rejection of any extension of the transitional phase and called on the transitional authorities to comply with their pledges, particularly the pledges made on the handing over of power to civilians. The opposition, meanwhile, voiced its preparedness for dialogue and discussions.
Ashbeih Ould El Sheikh Maa’ EL Aynan, president of the Popular Front Party, who withdrew from the conglomeration of the opposition parties recently, demanded the extension of the transitional phase for one year. He said that the military have for most part failed to honor their pledges. Moreover, the political parties did not trust one another. Consequently, he believed, the transitional phase should be extended for one additional year to cleanse the atmosphere and to regain confidence.
He played it alone and surprised the political arena in Mauritania, all the more so because a few days ago, he was part of the Conglomeration of the opposition parties whose platform is described as strong and radical. What made this surprise all the more important was that it represented the first official and public invitation by a political party, which is not even part of the conglomeration of the political parties of Al-Mithaq which support the government, for the extension of the rule of the military junta.
Mauritanian President Val has hinted that there was a possibility of holding second presidential elections if none of he candidates won by an absolute majority in the elections due to be held on 11 March 2007.
The transitional authorities continued to insist on continuing their silence vis-à-vis the accusations and apprehensions of the opposition and did not reply to a request made by the leaders of the opposition to confer with the head of State.
Condition stipulated that to be elected president, a candidate should secure the absolute majority in the two runs of elections
Political saloons and newspapers as well as the news websites denounced some parts of the speech which President Val made to the Mayors Conference.
Everyone paused to determine the way in which President Val interpreted Article 26 of the Law regulating the Election of the President. He said that the law stipulated that the winning candidate should secure the absolute, not the relative majority, of votes cast in the first run and in the second run of the elections, if necessary.
Many people interpreted this pronouncement as a bid by President Val to prolong the transitional period, all the more so because it is impossible for any of the 20 candidates to secure the absolute majority in the two election runs. Nonetheless, the political parties and the presidential candidates were satisfied with the affirmation by President Val that the transitional authorities will maintain complete neutrality and will fulfill their pledges. However, no one was enthusiastic when he heard the condition stipulating the absolute majority of the two election runs, particularly the second election run which is internationally known as a run that decides who the winner is by a simple majority.
The rank and file was not at ease that President Val implicitly kept relations with Israel and warned the candidates against pledging to break off these ties. He said this was a harmful matter to the supreme interests of Mauritania.
The President of the Union of the Forces of Progress party Mohamed Ould Mawloud said in a comment on val’s speech that the ideas of the president included positive paragraphs. However, he warned against the dangers posed in the content of other paragraphs that were contained in the speech. He said that these other paragraphs can only signify the failure of his democratic process and consequently, would signal a new phase with unknown features, as he put it. He called for the cooperation of the political parties, the Military Council, and the civil society organizations to make the democratic transitional process succeed, asserting that this should be the goal of everyone and the goal of the ruling Military Council. 
Sources of the coalition said that the various forces of the coalition are unanimous on rejecting the Val’s speech because it included a clear hint that the military wanted to stay in power contrary to the pledges made by the ruling Military Council on the eve of reaching power on 3 August 2005. Coalition sources did not exclude the possibility that the transitional authorities might take steps to escalate the situation at a latter date.  They pointed out that there was no hope of holding transparent and fair elections in which the army would be neutral, particularly in light of the statements made by the Chairman of the Military Council which revealed his intention to continue in power by making weird interpretations of the constitution.
The leaders of the coalition meeting at the premises of the Alliance of Democratic Forces asserted their rejection of the speech made by the Chairman of the Military Council. They called the speech a serious deviation from the democratic process and a direct intervention in the ongoing electoral process.
As the crisis within the Mauritanian political circles continued to escalate, the conglomeration of al-Mithaq which included the Republican Party that ruled Mauritania and 17 factions that emanated from it announced their support of the independent candidate Sidi Ould El Sheikh Abdullah, who is believed to be he candidate of the Military Council.
A statement issued by this conglomeration, that basically consists of the former majority forces, said that in the transitional phase, the municipal and legislative elections were held and that the presidential elections will be held in a few weeks time, and this gives Mauritania a good opportunity to unfold the page of the despotic practices and inaugurate a new era of our political history, an era that is based on the real compliance with the principles and values of pluralistic democracy that is guaranteed by the provision of the amended constitution as the Mauritanian people approved it on 25 June 2006.
The statement added that this transformation which Mauritania is undergoing, at a time when it has not as yet freed itself from the suffering of the residues of the unilateral culture, constituted a major challenge that dictated vigilance and action by all ambitious democratic forces to act in an atmosphere of harmony and civil peace.
The Military Council
The Military Council is one of the most prominent features of the presidential conflict in the Mauritanian elections. The topic of the military has been repeated over and over again in the media and in the news on the Arab and international levels.
In the middle of last month, a Mauritanian newspaper launched an attack on what it called the mercenaries. It said that they hurried to support the candidate of the Military Council. Another newspaper denounced the lack of neutrality of this council and quoted the presidents of political parties as demanding the military to comply with neutrality and to make Mauritania avert heading in the direction of what they call the “Somalization.”
Earlier, the Alliance of the Forces of Democratic Change, which was the former opposition in Mauritania, said in a statement it issued that the formation of a new political alliance recently declared was a “ploy aimed at covering” the intervention by the ruling council in the electoral process. The statement also said that the establishment of the pro-government alliance was only a ‘political and media ploy aimed at covering the intervention of the Military Council in the electoral process.
The military and the extension of military rule
After this, a senior Mauritanian official source denied the rumors that were being extensively reiterated that the transitional phase could be extended. The source said that the rumors reiterated about the intention of the ruling Military Council to extend the transitional phase another one and a half years is groundless. The source denied that the Council of Ministers discussed this extension in its last session.
The opposition: A call for neutrality
In the same context, the Conglomeration of the Coalition of the Forces of Change, which includes 10 political factions, most of which were former opposition factions, appealed to the European Union to use its good offices with the Mauritanian authorities to make them comply with neutrality in the upcoming elections and to stop their prejudice in favor of one specific candidate.
The message of the coalition to the Europeans, which was distributed in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott, said that the coalition holds the Mauritanian authorities responsible for any negative repercussions that could result from intervention in influencing the will of the voters in the upcoming elections. It asserted that the intervention of the military will affect the entire democratic process.
In another message distributed by the coalition, it demanded the Chairman of the ruling Military Council, Colonel Val, to immediately stop intervention in the political process and to stop the appointments that are made unless there are clear reasons justifying these appointments. It also demanded the Military Council to stop granting major business deals during this sensitive and decisive period of the presidential elections, noting that this could be used to influence the voters. 
The Mauritanian opposition accused the Military Council Command of departure from the neutrality which it said that it would comply with after 3 August 2005 and supporting the independent presidential candidate Sidi Ould El Sheikh Abdullah. The transitional authorities have not as yet replied to these charges.
Uniqueness and clear margins
Code of ethics
The presidential elections in Mauritania are unique. There has been a political diversity in the electoral scene. On 3 January 2007, a code of ethics was agreed among the presidential candidates for the upcoming elections. Presidential candidates will compete with one another in accordance with this code of ethics. A committee was formed to communicate with the transitional authorities to urge them to be neutral among the candidates and not to do anything that could influence the choices of the voters. The candidates announced in a statement that they issued, after a meeting which they held, that the committee designated for communicating with the transitional authorities consists of five persons. The most prominent of these were former President Mohamed Khuna Ould Hidaleh and the president of the Union of the Forces of progress Party Mohamed Ould Maowloud.
The statement also announced that the presidential candidates agreed to persistently seek to make the democratic process succeed and to crown the transitional phase with transparent and fair elections.
Parties active during the rule of the former regime form a front against the opposition
ON 9 January 2007, a group of parties that were supported by the former regime announced the formation of a an expanded political front embracing 18 political parties and all the parties and forces that were active during the reign of the former regime which was overthrown on 3 August 2005 before the due date of the upcoming presidential elections.
The new political grouping which called itself the “Al-Mithaq” [Charter] said that its aim was to choose a unified candidate for the presidential elections due to be held on 11 March 2007. It affirmed that the conditions and criterion for the choice of the candidate is his election platform and how he will run the country in the future.
A statement issued by the new grouping said that it enjoyed a unified and stable parliamentary majority and that it was seeking through this majority to guarantee the good performance of the institutions of the republic on regular and progressive basis, adding that it was open on all the political forces and factions which share the goals and future plans of the grouping.
The most prominent candidate pledges to break off relations with Israel
The president of the Mauritanian Union for Change Party, Saleh Ould Hanana, one of the most prominent candidates of the Mauritanian presidential elections, due to be held in March 2007, pledged to break off relations with the Israeli occupation authorities if he won the elections. He made this pledge when he announced his candidacy in the presidential elections.       
The periodic president of the opposition coalition and president of the Alliance of the Forces of Democracy Party, Ahmed Ould Daddah, made a statement saying that the coalition will not condone of any rigged elections. He explained that rigging is not restricted to the day of polling, but also includes the “use of the prestige of the State and its methods in simultaneously attracting and scaring the voters.”
Ould Daddah said that the coalition will accept the results of any transparent and fair elections irrespective of the results. He warned that Mauritania cannot afford to go back to the past or engage into new tensions.  The other leaders of the coalition also affirmed the need for the respect of the pledges made and for stopping direct and indirect interventions in the democratic process.  The Coordinator of the Centrist reformists [Islamists], Mohamed Jameel Ould Mansour, asserted that the coalition needs deeds, not words, and would like to see immediate relinquishment of all forms of intervention.