Tear gas in Nouakchott as opposition takes to the streets

Police used teargas to break up an opposition demonstration in the capital, Nouakchott, on Wednesday as opposition leaders reacted angrily to accusations of involvement in a coup plot. The tear gas was directed at several hundred demonstrators who had gathered for a protest march called by the three main opposition leaders. Police said the authorities received no notification about the march, which was held in protest against a police raid on the home of presidential candidate, Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah. Following a seven-hour search of Haidallah's Nouakchott residence on Monday, two of the former president's sons were arrested at different times on Tuesday. The ruling Democratic and Social Republican Party (PRDS) has since strongly defended the raid, saying it suspicions were legitimate. Addressing reporters on Wednesday morning, the PRDS's spokesman, Ahmed Ould Bellah, said it had discovered a multi-faceted document in which Haidallah and its party had drawn out several "scenarios" of how they would take over power if they lost the elections on Friday. Bellah, who brandished the document during a press briefing in the capital, Nouakchott, said the oppostion candidate's plans included a "Gbagbo-style scenario". This was a reference to Laurent Gbagbo's coming to power in Cote d'Ivoire in October 2000, when mass demonstrations staged on his behalf after a disputed election led to the departure of then President Robert Guei. Another scenario referred to by Bellah would include one of Mauritania's best-known political figures, Ahmed Ould Daddah of the Rally of Republican Forces (RFD), conniving with Haidallah in taking power. The ultimate aim for Haidallah was the presidency "at all costs", Bellah said. But Haidallah's supporters have hit back strongly at the allegations. "It is just provocation, it is fantasy," Haidallah's spokesman Ely Ould Sneiba told IRIN on Wednesday. "We have never written such a document," Sneiba told IRIN, referring to the text allegedly found by police, adding that the party still did not know why Haidallah's two sons had been arrested. Until Monday, when some 100 policemen turned up to search Haidallah's house, the two-week campaign, which wraps up at midnight on Wednesday, had been relatively free of incident and had proceeded smoothly. But since Monday, there has been a string of events which has heightened tension in the capital, forcing some Nouakchott residents to temporarily leave the city in fear. Some local observers attributed the lastest events to nervousness on the part of incumbent President Maaouya Ould Sid' Ahmed Taya, who is facing a stronger challenge from the opposition than he had anticipated. Ould Taya, who came to power in December 1984 by toppling Haidallah, will face five challengers on Friday's elections in which some one million people are registered to vote. For the first time in Mauritania, a woman, Aicha Mint Jedane, a defector from Ould Taya's party, is running for the presidency, but she is not considered a favorite. Haidallah, Daddah and another long-time opposition leader, Mesaoud Ould Boukheir, are considered the favourites. Observers and political analysts said that a second round is possible. The three leading opposition parties have pledged to form one voting coaltion against Taya. For his supporters, he has brought democracy, economic development and built social infrastructures. His critics strongly disagree.