Mauritanian Leader Faces Four Rivals in Bid for New Term
Mauritanian leader Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz will face four other candidates including a woman and an anti-slavery activist in the June 21 presidential election, the constitutional court confirmed on Tuesday.
Court officials named Lalla Mariem Mint Moulaye Idriss, the second woman to run in the country's history, on a list of approved candidates which also included opposition party leaders Boidiel Ould Houmeid and Ibrahima Moctar Sarr.
Idriss, 57, and anti-slavery activist Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid were both named as independents.
Ould Abeid, a descendant of slaves himself, has won international recognition for leading efforts to combat slavery in a nation where it still exists, despite an official ban more than 30 years ago.
The court rejected the candidacies of businessman Alioune Ould Bouamatou and noted the decision of Bar Council president Ahmed Salem Ould Bouhoubeini to pull out of the race.
Ould Bouhoubeini, a member of radical opposition coalition the National Forum for Democracy and Unity, announced his withdrawal last week in protest over the "non-transparency" of the election.
The coalition combines Islamist movement Tewassoul and another smaller grouping, the 10 parties of the Coordination of Democratic Opposition, which boycotted parliamentary and local elections last year.
The moderate section of Mauritania's opposition, the People's Progressive Alliance, has announced that it will boycott the presidential election.
Abdel Aziz, a former army general who took power in a coup in August 2008, was elected the following year for a five-year term.
Source: Agence France Presse
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