NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has responded defiantly to an opposition boycott of this month’s presidential election, calling for “100 percent” turnout in a vote he is widely expected to win.
Abdel Aziz has urged “everyone to come out and vote” in the June 21 election, since campaigning began last week.
Aziz, an ex-army general who took control of the former French colony in a 2008 coup before being elected a year later, said those seeking a boycott “refuse to acknowledge the great progress made for poor Mauritanians” in recent years.
Mauritania’s opposition National Forum for Democracy and Unity, a loose collection of lawmakers including Islamists and civil society activists, yesterday announced its intention to snub the vote.
AFP
