Five cleared to challenge Ould Taya for the presidency

The Constitutional Court of Mauritania has given the green light for five opposition candidates to challenge President Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya in elections due on 7 November. They include former military head of state Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, who was overthrown by Ould Taya in a coup 19 years ago. Ould Haidalla announced plans to stand against Ould Taya for the leadership of this desert nation of 2.5 million people in August. Since then, he has picked up support from a broad, but uneasy alliance of Islamic fundamentalists, former Ould Taya supporters and liberal reformers. He is widely seen as the main challenger. The Constitutional Court formally approved six presidential candidates last Saturday, but vetoed two others. Unsurprisingly, it allowed Ould Taya, a 63-year-old former army colonel who has ruled the country with an iron hand since 1984, to stand for another six-year term. His grip on power appeared to loosen in June when a coup attempt by rebel army units was only put down after two days of heavy fighting in the capital, Nouakchott. But the opposition, which accused Ould Taya of rigging Mauritania's previous multi-candidate presidential elections in 1992 and 1997, remains divided. Ould Haidalla is likely to see some of his potential support drain away to Ahmed Ould Daddah, a half-brother of Mauritania's first president, Moktar Ould Daddah, who ruled this former French colony as a one-party state from independence in 1960 until his overthrow by a coup in 1978. Ahmed Ould Daddah, was officially credited with a third of the vote, when he stood against Ould Taya in 1992. Some of the female vote, meanwhile is likely to go to Aicha Mint Jiddana, the first women to stand for president in this poor and socially conservative Islamic country. She formerly belonged to Taya's ruling Republic and Social Democrat Party (PRDS), but is standing as an independent. The two other opposition candidates are Messaoud Ould Belkheir, a veteran opposition leader who was briefly detained in 1997 on suspicion of having close ties with Libya, and Moulaye Hassan Ould Jeyid, a less well known figure. The election campaign kicks off officially on October 22. Each of the candidates will be given access to state radio and television and US $24,000 of government money towards their campaign expenses. However, fears of vote-rigging remain and have not been allayed by the government's reluctance to allow independent scrutiny of the poll. Earlier this month, Ould Taya's official spokesman reacted furiously to a plan by three of the opposition leaders to collaborate in monitoring the vote at polling stations across the country, accusing them of behaving "brutally and irrationally by casting doubt over the transparency of the vote count." The Moroccan news agency MAP meanwhile quoted the Mauritanian Interior Ministry as saying the government would ban any attempt by Mauritanian citizens to form independent organisations to monitor the poll. The election will go to a second round run-off if no candidate achieves an absolute majority of votes cast in the first ballot. The winner will be faced with holding together a country riven by clan rivalries and ethnic strife, while tackling widespread poverty. This is particularly in the villages of the southeast, where the UN World Food Programme reckons that about 300,000 people are living permanently on the brink of starvation. Mauritania, which relies on exports of iron ore and revenue from fishing licences to provide most of its meagre foreign exchange earnings, is pinning its hopes on the discovery of offshore oil. Exploration drilling has produced some positive results, but the oil companies have not yet confirmed plans for commercial production.