Mauritania: Government

Principal Government Officials

Chief of State: President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz
Head of Government: Prime Minister Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf

Mauritania is a presidential republic. The government bureaucracy is composed of ministries, special agencies, and parastatal companies. The Ministry of Interior controls a system of regional governors and prefects modeled on the French system of local administration. Under this system, Mauritania is divided into 13 regions (wilaya), including the capital district, Nouakchott. Control is tightly concentrated in the executive branch of the central government, but a series of national and municipal elections since 1992 have produced some decentralization, and efforts to decentralize the government continue.

Mauritania’s bicameral legislature is composed of the lower house (National Assembly) directly elected to a 5-year term through universal suffrage, and the upper house (Senate) whose members are elected to 6-year terms by municipal councilors. The last elections for the National Assembly and Senate were held in 2006 and 2009, respectively.

Mauritania’s first President, Moctar Ould Daddah, served from independence through 1978. A series of coups brought Maaouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya to power, where he remained until removed from office in a 2005 bloodless coup d’etat. Elections in 2007 gave Mauritania a civilian head of state, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, briefly making the country an international model of a peaceful transition to democracy.

In August 2008, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz led another bloodless coup d’etat; he had opposed an Islamist-inspired coup against Taya in 2003, but supported the 2005 removal. International mediation resulted in the Dakar Accord of June 2009, and elections recognized by the international community were held in July of that year. President Aziz, running as a civilian candidate, won with 53% in the first round against a divided opposition.

Municipal and parliamentary elections, previously scheduled for September and October 2011 have been postponed, and President Aziz’s 5-year term will expire in 2014. In May 2011, President Aziz publicly launched a new system to conduct a census, automate national identity documents, and finalize the voter list. Civil society has raised concerns that its technical implementation will lead to disenfranchisement of Black Moors and Black African citizens. Although no recent census exists, it is estimated that 30% of the population are White Moors. Another 40% of mixed Arab-Berber-Black African descent are Black Moors. The remaining 30% are Black Africans of the Soninke, Pulaar, and Wolof tribes. Almost all Mauritanian citizens are Muslim.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) traditionally has operated in Algeria and northern Mali and has recruited and trained extremists from Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Mauritania, Libya, and other countries. Mauritania has taken an aggressive stance against terrorism, which remains a threat in the country. For several years, AQIM has carried out attacks against official targets and Westerners in Mauritania. In the late 2000s, European tourists were kidnapped and murdered by AQIM operatives. In 2011, Mauritanian courts convicted three individuals for the murder of an American citizen 2 years earlier.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Mauritania is the chair of the African Union’s (AU) Peace and Security Council through March 2012, and President Aziz’s leadership of AU High-Level Panels on Cote d’Ivoire and Libya has lifted the country’s international profile. Mauritania holds a seat on the UN Human Rights Council and is a candidate for the UN Security Council's 2012-2013 term. Mauritania is a member of the Arab League but not of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States.

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