Results of the second round: the colour of each region varies for how strongly it voted for either candidate. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi: red; Ahmed Ould Daddah: blue
A Mauritanian presidential election occurred on 11 March 2007.[1][2] Since no candidate received a majority of the votes, a second round was held on 25 March between the top two candidates, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Ahmed Ould Daddah. Abdallahi won the second round with about 53% of the vote and took office in April.[3]
Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi is a Mauritanian politician who was President of Mauritania from 2007 to 2008. He served in the government during the 1970s, and after a long period of absence from politics he won the March 2007 presidential election, taking office on 19 April 2007. He was deposed in a military coup d'état on August 6, 2008.
Ahmed Ould Daddah is a Mauritanian economist, politician and civil servant. He is a half-brother of Moktar Ould Daddah, the first President of Mauritania, and belongs to the Marabout Ouled Birri tribe. He is currently the President of the Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD) and was designated as the official leader of the opposition following the 2007 presidential election, in which he placed second.
The 2007 election followed a military coup in August 2005 that ousted long-time president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya; the head of the junta, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, said that he and the other members of the junta would not run for president in the election, which marks the last stage of the transition to civilian rule.
Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya is a Mauritanian military officer who served as the president of Mauritania from 1984 to 2005. Having come to power through a military coup, he was ousted by a military coup himself in 2005. Prior to his presidency, he was the 5th Prime Minister of Mauritania.
Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall was a Mauritanian political and military figure. Following a coup d'état in August 2005, he served as the transitional military leader of Mauritania until 19 April 2007, when he relinquished power to an elected government.
Moktar Ould Daddah was the President of Mauritania from 1960, when his country gained its independence from France, to 1978, when he was deposed in a military coup d'etat.
Zeine Ould Zeidane is a Mauritanian economist and politician. He placed third as a candidate in the March 2007 presidential election, and he subsequently served as Prime Minister from April 2007 to May 2008.
Ret. Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah was the head of state of Mauritania from 4 January 1980 to 12 December 1984. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2003 presidential election and the 2007 presidential election.
Abdallahi, who ran as an independent, was viewed by some as the candidate representing the ruling junta, and in January he received the backing of an important coalition of 18 parties composed of former supporters of Taya.[22] Abdallahi denied being the junta's candidate.[23] The Coalition of Forces for Democratic Change sent a letter to various international organizations, including the African Union, accusing the junta of "running an open campaign in favour of one candidate" through various methods, including asking influential people in the country to back their favored candidate, although the letter did not directly name Abdallahi as this candidate.[24]
The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa, with exception of various territories of European possessions located in Africa. The bloc was founded on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa. The intention of the AU is to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa by 32 signatory governments. The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa.
Vall suggested at one point the possibility that, with blank ballots included in the total, no candidate would win a majority of the vote in two rounds, in which case new elections would have to be held. This caused a controversy, and the law was changed so that blank ballots would not count towards the total.[25]
A record 1.1 million of the population of 3.2 million people registered to vote.[26] Prior to the election, the frontrunners were considered to be Daddah, Zeidane and Abdallahi.[27][28]
First round
On March 12, with about 26% of the vote counted, Abdallahi and Daddah were reported to both have about 25% of the vote; Zeidane was in third place with about 13%.[29] With 86% of the vote counted, Abdallahi led with 22.76% of the vote, while Daddah had 21.46% and Zeidane was third.[30] Later on March 12, Interior Minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine announced the provisional results and said that Abdallahi and Daddah would compete in a second round on March 25.[31][32] Final results were proclaimed by the Constitutional Council on March 15: Abdallahi received 24.80% of the first round vote, while Daddah received about 20.69% and Zeidane received about 15.28%. Messaoud Ould Boulkheir was fourth with about 9.79% of the vote, followed by Ibrahima Moctar Sarr with 7.95%. There were 794,979 voters out of the 1,133,152 who were registered, a turnout rate of 70.16%.[33]
e•dSummary of the 11 March and 25 March 2007 Mauritanian presidential election results
On March 14, the Islamist "Réformateurs centristes", which supported Hanenna in the first round, backed Daddah for the second round.[34] Hanenna also backed Daddah,[35] as did the candidates Ba Mamadou Alassane,[36]Mohamed Ould Maouloud,[37] and Ibrahima Sarr.[38]
A televised debate between Abdallahi and Daddah was held on March 22. It was conducted in a non-confrontational style, with the candidates each explaining their positions.[42] The candidates advocated similar policies, including measures against slavery, which persists in the country.[43]
Abdallahi said that it would be easier for him to accomplish things as president because his supporters would constitute a parliamentary majority.[3] He also said that if he won, he would be willing to include Daddah in the government, as long as his allies agreed.[44]
Following the election, on March 26, Interior Minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine declared Abdallahi the winner, saying that he won 52.85% of the vote.[45] Abdallahi won 10 out of the country's 13 regions; Daddah won in Nouakchott, Inchiri Region, and Trarza Region.[46] Turnout was about 67.5%.[45] Daddah accepted the results and congratulated Abdallahi on his victory.[3] The results were confirmed on 29 March 2007.[47]
Abdallahi was sworn in on April 19.[48] He named Zeidane as prime minister the next day,[49] and Boulkheir was elected as president of the National Assembly on April 26.[50]
The first fully democratic Presidential election since 1960 occurred on 11 March 2007. The election was the final transfer from military to civilian rule following the military coup in 2005. This was the first time the president was selected by ballot in the country's history. The election was won by Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who was ousted by a military coup in 2008 and replaced by general Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
Sghair Ould M'Bareck is a Mauritanian politician. He was the 9th Prime Minister of Mauritania from July 6, 2003, when he was appointed by President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya following an attempted coup in the previous month, until August 7, 2005, when he resigned following a successful coup against Taya. Ould M'Bareck is a Haratin.
The Rally of Democratic Forces, or Assembly of Democratic Forces, is a political party in Mauritania. It is led by Ahmed Ould Daddah.
The Union of the Forces of Progress is a left leaning political party in Mauritania.
Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar was Prime Minister of Mauritania from 1992 to 1996 and again from 2005 to 2007.
Messaoud Ould Boulkheir is among the first Haratine to become a political leader in Mauritania. Messaoud also contributed significantly to the end of the 1989 events in Mauritania, protecting the right of the victims and the emancipation of the Haratine in Mauritania with his party.
Ibrahima Moctar Sarr is a Mauritanian journalist and politician of the fulani patrilineage Saar. Running as an independent, he placed fifth in the March 2007 presidential election, and he has been the President of the Alliance for Justice and Democracy/Movement for Renewal (AJD/MR) since August 2007.
Saleh Ould Hanenna is a former Mauritanian soldier and political figure.
The People's Progressive Alliance is a political party in Mauritania.
Al-Mithaq is the collective name for coalition of independents and parties associated with the former regime in Mauritania. Al-Mithaq won in the 19 November and 3 December 2006 National Assembly election 41 out of 95 seats and in the 21 January and 4 February 2007 Senate election 34 out of 56 seats.
Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghef is a Mauritanian politician. He was appointed as Prime Minister of Mauritania on 6 May 2008, serving until the August 2008 coup d'état. Waghef is also President of the National Pact for Democracy and Development (ADIL), and he was Secretary-General of the Presidency from 2007 to 2008.
A coup d'état took place in Mauritania on August 6, 2008, when Mauritanian President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was ousted from power by a group of high-ranking generals he had dismissed from office earlier that day.
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is a Mauritanian politician who is currently the President of Mauritania, in office since 2009. A career soldier and high-ranking officer, he was a leading figure in the August 2005 coup that deposed President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, and in August 2008 he led another coup, which toppled President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. Following the 2008 coup, Abdel Aziz became President of the High Council of State as part of what was described as a political transition leading to a new election. He resigned from that post in April 2009 in order to stand as a candidate in the July 2009 presidential election, which he won. He was sworn in on 5 August 2009.
A presidential election was held in Mauritania on 18 July 2009. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who led the 2008 coup d'état, won a narrow first-round majority in the election, according to official results. A second round, if necessary, would have been held on 1 August 2009.
The Alliance for Justice and Democracy/Movement for Renewal is a political party in Mauritania. It represents the black minority population of the south of the country, centered on the Senegal River valley, and was formed and is led by rights activist and former presidential candidate Ibrahima Moctar Sarr. The party's colours are black and white, and its symbol is a Zebu bull, livestock being associated with the traditionally pastoralist Fula people who make up much of its constituency.
Girod, Desha M.; Walters, Meir R. (2012). "Elite-led democratisation in aid-dependent states: the case of Mauritania". Journal of North African Studies. 17 (2): 181–193. doi:10.1080/13629387.2011.608515.
N'Diaye, Boubacar (2009). "To 'midwife' – and abort – a democracy: Mauritania's transition from military rule, 2005–2008". Journal of Modern African Studies. 47 (1): 129–152. doi:10.1017/S0022278X0800376.
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