Mauritanian opposition candidates are rejecting results from a presidential election that show former military leader Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz winning.
With more than 70 percent of ballots counted, Mauritania's electoral commission says Aziz is winning more than 52 percent of the vote. If that count holds up, the leader of last August's coup would win election in the first round - avoiding a run-off in which his main political opponents had vowed to unite against him.
Those opponents immediately rejected the provisional results as an "electoral charade, which is trying to legitimize the coup." In a joint statement, Ahmed Ould Daddah, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, Messaoud Ould Boulkheir, and Hamai Ould Meimou denounced what they called "prefabricated results."
They are calling for the international community to investigate what they say were voting irregularities, including counting opposition ballots for Aziz. The opposition leaders are asking "competent bodies", including the country's constitutional council and Interior Ministry to not validate the results.
Their joint statement is urging Mauritanians to mobilize to defeat what opposition leaders are calling an "electoral coup d'etat."
During the campaign, Daddah said he was quiet when he says vote fraud denied him victory in presidential elections in 1991 and 2007. But he said this time he is not prepared to be silent if the election is stolen and told his supporters neither should they.
Arab electoral observers monitored more than 300 of Mauritania's 2,500 polling stations. They saw irregularities including partisan electoral officials, security forces inside polling stations, and the denial of voters who registered after June 6th - most of whom support the opposition.
But the group's preliminary report says it does not believe those irregularities will affect the overall outcome of the vote.
Mohsen Marzouk is Secretary General of the Arab Democracy Foundation.
Marzouk says Mauritania is a crucial point that will affect all its people. He called for political parties and official institutions to adhere strictly to democracy as the best way to solve the political crisis and promote stability and development.
Arab observers say they will consider opposition complaints and include them in its final report.
Boulkheir and Daddah had both publicly pledged to support the other in a potential run-off against Aziz if no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote.
This election was meant to restore constitutional rule to Mauritania after Aziz led a coup 11 months ago that toppled the nation's first freely-elected leader.
Aziz ran a populist campaign, calling himself the "Candidate of the Poor" pledging to improve access to health care while lowering food and fuel prices. To the cheers of his supporters, he vowed to build more jails to imprison his political opponents, who he says are corrupt.
Aziz campaigned far longer than most of his opponents as he began running for a previously-scheduled June election that he agreed to postpone as part of a power-sharing deal that included the opposition dropping their electoral boycott.
No comments:
Post a Comment