AFRICA/MAURITANIA - PRESIDENT TAYA IN THE LEAD AFTER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS YESTERDAY

Saturday, 8 November 2003

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Nouakchott (Fides Service)- President Maaouiya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya appears to be in the lead in the count of votes placed during presidential elections yesterday 7 November in Mauritania. The first results give Taya 61% of the votes counted (more than half the total). Votes have been counted in 109 of the country’s 216 districts.
The Opposition has denounced electoral fraud. The main Opposition leader Khouna Ould Haidalla was arrested on the eve of the vote and detained for several hours before being released. Haidalla, arrested with four collaborators, was accused of plotting against state security.
In June President Taya escaped an attempted coup by radical Muslim elements (see Fides 9 giugno 2003 http://www.fides.org/eng/news/2003/0306/09_248.html).
Mauritania has a population of 2.5 million in an area of 1 million sq. km. It is one of the world’s poorest countries with an average income of 350 per head and an unemployment rate of 21%. The main resources are iron mining and the fishing industry. Recently oil deposits were found off the coast of Mauritania which await to be developed. (L.M.) (Fides Service 8/11/2003, lines 20 words 215)