Mauritania elections: official campaign kicks off [Morning Call]

Come June 22, Mauritania will head to polls to elect a new leader. Six candidates have declared their interest to run for the Presidential seat after official campaigns for the June 22 elections were opened on Friday. The candidates are hoping to replace President Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz after his second term tenure ends.

The election is also historic as this will be the first democratic handover of power following the country’s many coups between 1978 to 2008. So there are about 6 candidates vying for the position but then the challenge is considered to be between these two- the ruling party’s Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, who is a former Minister of Defense, and the main opposition party coalition candidate Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar.