Slavery’s Decision Day In Mauritania

Anti-slavery activist takes second place in dubious election -- in one of the world’s worst slave states.

July 8, 2019 Stephen Brown

Mauritanian anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Obeid, a much-jailed human rights protester on behalf of his country’s approximately 500,000 chattel slaves, took second place in contested presidential elections in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania last month.

Dah Obeid announced his candidacy for the president’s office only days after his being released from prison last December for once again angering the government. He had been incarcerated, and tortured, many times before.

Dah Obeid won 18.75 per cent of the vote last month for his Radicals For Global Action Party, an increase of 10 per cent over his 2014 election showing. Presidential elections are held every five years in Mauritania.

The third place opposition finisher, a former prime minister, backed by the country’s main Islamic party, received 17.87 per cent.
                                   
The winner was former defense minister Mohamed Ould Ghazouni, a retired general, with 52 per cent of the vote. Ghazouni was handpicked by outgoing president Abdel Mohamed Ould Aziz, another general, leading Mauritanians to wonder whether their country will always have a military figure as leader. Ould Aziz couldn’t run again because the Mauritanian constitution only allows two terms.

Ould Aziz seized power in Mauritania in a coup in 2008. He won an election in 2009 and again in 2014 -- where he received 82 per cent of the vote, not unusual in an African dictatorship. Dah Obeid hotly contested that result -- just as he is contesting the recent election.........To Read More.....