Mauritania is due to hold presidential elections on June 29th, 2024, and the questions being asked now are over the reliability of the entire electoral process. The electoral commission, CENI, which since the conclusion of the contested legislative elections, has become proactive, reassured this week of measures to be taken around polling with the deployment of observers.
The CENI has assured each candidate that a representative can be appointed at every polling station to oversee elections. At the same time, all results at every polling station are published for the public on the My CENI website, a great achievement in terms of transparency.
Political actors remain cautious all the same. The opposition demanded that voters be biometrically verified by name for the election. The CENI said that was a request made too late and, therefore, too expensive to implement.
“The CENI has promised that each representative will have a copy,” said Gourmo Abdoul Lo, attorney for one of the hopefuls. Polling station directors were not to give each representative a Candidate copy of the official results, as was the case in earlier elections. A different sticking point is what the opposition says is an insufficient number of polling stations, particularly those for the giant Mauritanian diaspora.
The government of Mauritania has set up a National Observatory to preside over the election, sending out 600 observers across the country. However, the opposition has said these will not be partial. The African Union will send 30 short-term observers and the International Organization of La Francophonie will dispatch six. The EU will not send observers but three electoral experts to the CENI.
These measures will instil more confidence in the electoral process, considering past misgivings, and will ensure a transparent election whenever Mauritania decides to carry out a very critical vote.