Category Archives: Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania – PM resigns

There is a political crisis brewing in Mauritania. The prime minister, Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghev, who only came to office in early May, has resigned. He was about to be defeated in a motion of no-confidence that was due to be held on Saturday. The motion was tabled by the PNDD-ADIL party, which is the prime minister’s own party.

The president had threatened to dissolve the legislature if the no-confidence motion went ahead, but it appears as if the deputies would have followed through on their vote.

Jeuneafrique.com reports that the discontented deputies were particularly concerned with the presence in the government of associates of the former president, Maaouya Ould Taya, who was deposed in a peaceful coup in 2005. It is also reported that the army supported the no-confidence motion, presumably for the same reason.

The current situation remains unclear. Jeuneafrique.com reports that the president, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, has reappointed Prime Minister Ould El Waghev to his post. However, other reports suggest that the prime minister has been reappointed on an interim basis before a new government is formed.

Mauritania has only just returned to democracy, though obviously it depends how this term is defined. Paradoxically, the coup is widely considered to have helped the democratisation process. In 2006 a new constitution was adopted. (Actually, it was almost exactly the same as the pre-coup document). Freedom House has classed Mauritania as Partly Free since 2005 and as an Electoral Democracy since 2007. Its Polity score in 2006 was -3, which still corresponds to an autocracy.