Mauritania
Country in NW Africa, bounded NE by Algeria, E and S by Mali, SW by
Senegal, W by the Atlantic Ocean, and NW by Western Sahara.
Government
The 1991 constitution provides for a two-chamber legislature, comprising
a 79-member national assembly, elected by universal suffrage for a five
-year term, and a 56-member senate, indirectly elected by municipal
leaders for a six-year term. The president is directly elected for a
six- year term. The president is head of state and appoints a prime
minister as head of government.
History
In 1920 Mauritania became a French colony as part of French West Africa.
It achieved internal self-government within the French Community 1958
and full independence 1960. Moktar Ould Daddah, leader of the Mauritanian
People's Party (PPM), became president 1961.
In 1975 Spain ceded Western Sahara to Mauritania and Morocco, leaving
them to decide how to share it. Without consulting the Saharan people,
Mauritania occupied the south, leaving the north to Morocco. A resistance
movement developed against this occupation, the Popular Front for Liberation,
or the Polisario Front, with Algerian backing, and Mauritania and Morocco
found themselves engaged in a guerrilla war, forcing the two former
rivals into a mutual defence pact. The conflict weakened Mauritania's
economy, and in 1978 President Daddah was deposed in a bloodless coup
led by Col Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla. Peace with the Polisario was
eventually agreed Aug, allowing diplomatic relations with Algeria to
be restored.
The only political party, the PPM, was banned 1978. Some of its exiled
supporters continued to operate from Paris through the Alliance for
a Democratic Mauritania, and from Dakar, in Senegal, through the Organization
of Nationalist Mauritanians.
In Dec 1984, while Col Haidalla was attending a Franco-African summit
meeting in Burundi, Col Moaouia Ould Sidi Muhammad Taya, a former prime
minister, led a bloodless coup to overthrow him. Diplomatic relations
with Morocco had been broken 1981 and the situation worsened 1984 when
Mauritania formally recognized the Polisario regime in Western Sahara.
Normal relations were restored 1985. During 1989 there were a number
of clashes with Senegalese in border areas resulting in the death of
at least 450 people. The presidents of the two countries met to try
to resolve their differences. Citizens of each country were forced to
return to their native country, with nearly 50,000 people repatriating
by June. In 1991 there were calls for the resignation of President Taya,
despite a promise of multiparty elections and an amnesty granted to
political prisoners.
Mauritania's incumbent president, Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, was declared
the overwhelming victor after elections mid-Dec 1997. The elections
were boycotted by opposition groups. Taya, who took power in a 1984
military coup and legalized opposition parties 1991, captured 90 per
cent of the vote.
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