Mauritanians vote in favour of new constitution

NOUAKCHOTT – Voters in a country that has known only coups have overwhelmingly approved a referendum that places constitutional term limits on future presidents and ensures power will change hands at least every decade, the interior minister said yesterday, citing provisional results.

Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine told The Associated Press that Mauritanians have “massively approved the new law” that was put to voters in the desert nation on Sunday by the military junta that seized power August 3. The military rulers have promised to restore democracy, with the constitutional referendum a major step in that direction.Lemine gave no figures.A final, official tally was expected later yesterday.An electoral official at the Interior Ministry, Sidi Yeslem Ould Amar Chein, said that 96 per cent voted in favour of the changes according to initial results based on 46 per cent of the nation’s 980 000 registered voters whose ballots have been counted so far.Turnout was estimated at between 70 to 80 per cent, Chein said.The ballot, the first held by the military junta, marks a crucial first step toward a return to civilian rule ahead of presidential elections due in March in this Islamic republic of fewer than three million people in northwestern Africa that sits at a crossroads of the Arab and African worlds.The constitutional amendments would limit future presidents to two five-year terms – a cap on power rare in the Arab world as well as in Africa, where countries like Gabon, Chad and Uganda have all recently changed constitutions to ensure long-serving heads of state can stay in power even longer.Junta leader Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall was a key proponent of the constitutional changes, which were drafted in consultation with the country’s main political parties including those that formerly backed Maaoya Sid’Ahmed Ould Taya, the president ousted in August.Vall’s junta has been welcomed by most here because it ended Taya’s repressive 21-year rule.Taya lives in exile in the Arabian Gulf state of Qatar.Vall has won praise at home and abroad for reaching out to a broad spectrum of political parties and guiding his impoverished nation toward its first real democratic elections since independence from France in 1960.The referendum is a prelude to municipal and legislative polls due in November and a presidential election in March – five months earlier than the junta promised after seizing power.Vall, who served as national police chief for two decades, has said no member of his junta will stand in upcoming elections.He reiterated that vow on Sunday and said he would step down.Mauritania has weathered more than 10 coups or attempted coups over the past half century.Last week, authorities detained five reported Taya associates, including an active-duty army colonel, for allegedly plotting to sabotage the referendum and destabilize the country.Dozens of international observers from the African Union, the Arab League and other groups were on hand to monitor the poll – welcomed into the country as part of the junta’s efforts to prove its openness.A handful of small parties oppose the vote on the grounds the constitution fails to take into account once-taboo issues like abolishing slavery, the rights of black African minorities in an Arab-dominated nation, and the fate of tens of thousands of Mauritanians expelled by Taya years ago.- Nampa-APThe military rulers have promised to restore democracy, with the constitutional referendum a major step in that direction.Lemine gave no figures.A final, official tally was expected later yesterday.An electoral official at the Interior Ministry, Sidi Yeslem Ould Amar Chein, said that 96 per cent voted in favour of the changes according to initial results based on 46 per cent of the nation’s 980 000 registered voters whose ballots have been counted so far.Turnout was estimated at between 70 to 80 per cent, Chein said.The ballot, the first held by the military junta, marks a crucial first step toward a return to civilian rule ahead of presidential elections due in March in this Islamic republic of fewer than three million people in northwestern Africa that sits at a crossroads of the Arab and African worlds.The constitutional amendments would limit future presidents to two five-year terms – a cap on power rare in the Arab world as well as in Africa, where countries like Gabon, Chad and Uganda have all recently changed constitutions to ensure long-serving heads of state can stay in power even longer.Junta leader Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall was a key proponent of the constitutional changes, which were drafted in consultation with the country’s main political parties including those that formerly backed Maaoya Sid’Ahmed Ould Taya, the president ousted in August.Vall’s junta has been welcomed by most here because it ended Taya’s repressive 21-year rule.Taya lives in exile in the Arabian Gulf state of Qatar.Vall has won praise at home and abroad for reaching out to a broad spectrum of political parties and guiding his impoverished nation toward its first real democratic elections since independence from France in 1960.The referendum is a prelude to municipal and legislative polls due in November and a presidential election in March – five months earlier than the junta promised after seizing power.Vall, who served as national police chief for two decades, has said no member of his junta will stand in upcoming elections.He reiterated that vow on Sunday and said he would step down.Mauritania has weathered more than 10 coups or attempted coups over the past half century.Last week, authorities detained five reported Taya associates, including an active-duty army colonel, for allegedly plotting to sabotage the referendum and destabilize the country.Dozens of international observers from the African Union, the Arab League and other groups were on hand to monitor the poll – welcomed into the country as part of the junta’s efforts to prove its openness.A handful of small parties oppose the vote on the grounds the constitution fails to take into account once-taboo issues like abolishing slavery, the rights of black African minorities in an Arab-dominated nation, and the fate of tens of thousands of Mauritanians expelled by Taya years ago.- Nampa-AP