May 25. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Mauritanian security forces have detained the politician and leader of the anti-slavery movement Biram Dah Abeid after pointing to a possible armed uprising in case the results of the legislative and municipal elections are ratified, in which the opposition has denounced a fraud.
The Initiative for the Revival of Abolitionism (IRA-Mauritania) movement has denounced on its account on the social network Facebook that the politician “was arrested by the Mauritanian Police” after “a visit by a commissioner of the Judicial Police, who has informed that he was summoned before the General Directorate of National Security”.
“The event takes place after the municipal, legislative and regional elections, marked by massive fraud,” he said, while stressing that the security forces later charged “militants who came to show their solidarity with Biram Dah Abeid”, incidents which resulted in 16 detainees and three seriously injured.
The arrest of Dah Abeid – who came in second in the 2019 presidential elections – took place after the activist declared that “if the results of the legislative, regional and municipal elections on May 13 are approved, the people free Mauritania will take up arms against the current regime”.
For his part, the Mauritanian Government spokesman, Sid’Ahmed Uld Mohamed, stressed that “no one is outside the law” and stressed that the Executive “is the guarantor of peace, security and prosperity for Mauritanians “, according to the Mauritanian news portal Cridem.
According to the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), the Mauritanian government party, El Insaf, prevailed in the legislative and municipal elections. Thus, the party obtained 80 of the 176 seats in Parliament, while its allies have obtained another 36 seats, for the 24 obtained by the opposition, including nine in the hands of the Tauasul Islamist party.
In addition, there will be a second round to determine the remaining 36 seats, amid complaints from the opposition for alleged irregularities to tip the balance in favor of the president’s party in the elections, the first since the president, Mohamed Uld Ghazuani, came to power. power in 2019.
Insaf has also won all the regional councils and more than half of the local councils, within the framework of what the opposition parties have described as an “electoral circus”. Thus, they called mobilizations for this same Thursday and warned that the situation could become “a multidimensional political crisis.”
Uld Ghazuani, 66, has not yet clarified whether he will stand for re-election in the presidential elections scheduled for 2024, after coming to power in 2019 in elections that he participated in with the support of the outgoing president, Mohamed Uld Abdelaziz, of whom he has been estranged ever since.
In fact, Uld Abdelaziz — who became President of Mauritania after winning the 2009 elections — a year after leading a coup and presiding over the High Council of State during a transition period — has been highly critical of his ‘dolphin’ for the process opened against him on corruption charges, which he rejects and describes as politically motivated.
