On Wednesday, 9 parties loyal to Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El-Ghazouani demanded that the counting of the results of the parliamentary and local elections that took place on Saturday be stopped and that they be repeated throughout the country.
This came in a joint statement by the parties: “Virtue”, “Welfare”, “Union for Democracy and Progress”, “Mauritanian Union and Change”, “Republican Party for Democracy and Renewal”, “Construction and Progress”, “Wasat and Action for Progress”. Mauritanian blocs”, and “Unity and Development”.
In their statement, the parties said that the elections witnessed widespread fraud, while major violations were recorded, including “the delay in opening voting centers, changing the data of the voting minutes, disposing of the results, and moving the ballot boxes before counting.”
It indicated that among these violations also included “the refusal to receive party representatives, voters voting without voter cards, and the reopening of polling stations after they were closed based on instructions from the ruling party’s campaign coordinator.”
The parties that signed the statement stressed that they “will not remain silent about these breaches and transgressions, which constitute a dangerous and unprecedented phenomenon that has not been witnessed in any elections in the country since the first eras of fraud, in a blatant and serious threat to peace, tranquility, and national security, and an assault on our democracy.”
While these parties are classified as part of the majority supporting the current president, the “Insaf” party is considered the ruling party in Mauritania, and it did not issue any position regarding the demand for re-elections, until Wednesday morning.
On Sunday, the main opposition parties demanded the annulment of the election results in the capital, Nouakchott, due to what they said was “tampering with the voting process” in addition to “fraud, violations and manipulation” of the electoral process.
On Saturday, parliamentary, local and regional elections were held in Mauritania, while the number of eligible voters exceeded 1.7 million.
559 lists competed for 176 seats in Parliament, while the number of lists running for the regional elections reached 145 lists competing for 13 regional councils, and the number of lists running for municipalities reached 1,378 lists, competing for 238 local councils.
