One of President Ghazouani’s preeminent allies, in his capacity as Mauritania’s head of diplomacy, Mohamed Salem Merzoug, enumerates to APA the reasons behind the incumbent’s re-election.
Excerpts from interview by special correspondent Lemine Ould M. Salem, Nouakchott
In ten days’ time, in the great hall of the Palais des Congrès in Nouakchott, the President of the Constitutional Council will solemnly proclaim his election for a second and final term at the helm in Mauritania and invite Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani to take the oath of office, and then display the Grand Cordon of National Merit, which marks his official entry into office. Will this be the speech of great promises? No doubt. But could it be the one in which he takes stock of the five years he has just spent at the head of the country? Possibly. But will Ghazouani, elected for his first term with 56 percent of the vote, have a word, a thought for his unsuccessful opponents in the June 29 election?
With the exception of the ebullient Biram Dah Abeid – undoubtedly the most prominent figure on the local political scene in the last ten years, who speaks of an “electoral hold-up” – none of them has bothered to “congratulate” the outgoing head of state, or even to “take note” of the provisional results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), the official body in charge of the vote.
“President of all Mauritanians”
“If there is one trait of President Ghazouani’s character on which Mauritanians agree, both his supporters and his opponents, it is his obsession with dialogue and appeasement in national political life. The only candidate who has not yet conceded victory to President Ghazouani has often publicly acknowledged this. In the five years of his first term, the country has not experienced a single crisis, tension or political incident. None of the country’s opponents could complain of having been harassed. This fact is so rare in the country’s political history that it’s hard not to point it out. Moreover, the president’s first reaction when he was declared re-elected, according to preliminary results, was to promise that he would remain the president of all Mauritanians, whether they voted for him or not,” argues Mohamed Salem Merzoug, Minister of Foreign Affairs and one of the cogs in the wheel of the Ghazouani system, in an exclusive interview with APA at his residence in Nouakchott.
In Africa, incumbent candidates are often the big favourites in an election, especially when the opposition is in disarray – as was the case in this presidential election in Mauritania – so Ghazouani’s chances of returning as Mauritania’s leader were anything but slim.
But just as in 2019, when he first sought the votes of his compatriots as the designated successor to his predecessor, his new triumph could not avoid being blemished by post-election unrest.
“Black and white cliché”
While five years ago the incidents were limited to a few brief, isolated clashes between young opposition demonstrators and the forces of law and order in the capital, Nouakchott, this time three or four people were killed in riots linked to the presidential elections. The events took place in Kaédi, a large town in the south of the country inhabited mainly by the Hal-Pular community (Peuls and Toucouleurs), where opposition leader Biram Dah Abeid is particularly popular.
“Some people find it difficult to read political life in African countries beyond the criteria of ethnicity, tribe, religion or color. In the case of Mauritania, the famous black-and-white stereotype still applies. And the events in Kaédi were, unfortunately, no exception to this vision,” says the minister, indignantly.
“None of those arrested, including those who unfortunately died during the riots in the town on the night of July 1 to 2, were questioned about their communal origins. One death is always too many. The deaths that occurred in Kaédi are deplorable and the authorities did not wait to regret them,” he insists.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, July 2, the Ministry of the Interior gave its version of the circumstances that had attended to these events. According to the ministry, it was a particularly complex law enforcement operation that took place in the wake of violent demonstrations that broke out late at night, with a “surprise effect” and that led to acts of “looting and vandalism.”
“Two members of the security forces were seriously injured, one of whom is in intensive care. The rioters were numerous and those arrested were detained according to the circumstances of the moment. A commission of inquiry was immediately set up and the case was referred to the courts. The conclusions of the investigation and the judicial follow-up to these unfortunate events will be made public as soon as possible. In an effort to calm the situation, the authorities have released all those arrested during the incidents,” promises the man who, before diplomacy, was head of the Ministry of the Interior.
Isn’t it a bit embarrassing for an incumbent president, whose entourage was counting on getting at least 60 percent of the vote in the first round, to end up 4 points short of such a goal?
“The only goal was to win without waiting for a second round. And we did it. The most important thing is to be able to continue the series of reforms that the president initiated during his first term: virtuous governance, anchoring the culture of political dialogue, aid for the most disadvantaged and an employment policy focused on young people. And believe me, these are enough reasons to explain our victory,” the minister concludes.
Senegal’s example
What does he think of the 22 percent obtained by his main opponent, Biram Dah Abeid, representing almost a quarter of the voters who participated in the June 29 elections?
“They undoubtedly reflect the legitimate expectations and needs of some of our fellow citizens. By declaring that he promises to be the president of all Mauritanians, Ghazouani has made it clear that he attaches particular importance to those compatriots who did not vote for him. That’s how you build a stable political system,” explains the academic, who has been a minister several times over the past thirty years.
As the last presidential elections took place a few months after the extraordinary change of government in neighbouring Senegal, where a candidate from outside the system, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, triumphed over the candidate of the ruling party, many in Mauritania dreamed of a similar scenario.
“No electoral experience, however exemplary, can be copied from one country to another. Each country has its own political boundaries, its own balance of power between political actors. Opinions do not necessarily have the same urgency. The only thing that is probably common to all is access to certain basic services and a decent living environment. On this point, the record of President Ghazouani’s first term is already uplifting, and his promises for the next five years are largely reassuring, especially for the young people he made the central theme of his campaign,” Merzoug claims.
In Mauritania, where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 35, more than 22,000 young people have left the country since 2023 for the United States, most of them took enormous risks by crossing several South American countries to try to get through the wall that separates the Mexican and American borders.
“The United States doesn’t just attract Mauritanians. Many African and even Asian countries are involved in this rush to America. There’s no lack of work here, and the economic outlook is very good, according to the unanimous opinion of experts,” the minister asserts, alluding to the exploitation of large gas reserves, some of which are shared with neighbouring Senegal, expected before the end of this year.
Before standing for election for the first time five years ago, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani had a long military career. Educated at the Royal Military Academy in Meknès, Morocco, this former aide to the President of the Republic, who worked in military intelligence, was Director of National Security, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, and Minister of Defense before stepping down to finally run for president in 2019.
Mauritanian exception
In a country that was once a recurring target for Islamist armed groups based in the desert of neighbouring Mali, ‘the safe choice,’ according to his recent election campaign, is seen as the main architect of the current security policy that makes Mauritania, which has not seen any jihadist attacks since 2011, an exception in a Sahel largely ravaged by Islamist armed groups.
“Since 2005, our country had become the main target of jihadist groups based in the subregion. We had to radically reform our security system and our army to deal with this threat. First as a police officer, then as head of the army, Ghazouani dedicated himself to this task. In just five years, the country was made safe. It is now one of the safest in the sub-region,” says Merzoug with satisfaction.
As Mauritania is home to the G5 Sahel site, Ghazouani, currently chairman of the African Union (AU), has watched helplessly as this organisation, presented at its creation in 2014 as the ideal framework for pooling resources between Sahelian countries to tackle the challenges of jihadism and development, died a clinical death. After Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger withdrew, leaving Chad alone with Mauritania as members.
Notoriously unpopular in Nouakchott, have these successive withdrawals been digested by the Mauritanian authorities? “Whatever the form of the institutional framework, our countries are condemned to work together to face certain common challenges. And that’s what we continue to do, either bilaterally or within a broader framework,” says Nouakchott’s head of diplomacy.
Morocco: a solid history of blood and religion
What does he think of the Moroccan proposal to bring together the Sahelian countries within the framework of an Atlantic initiative to offer a maritime frontier to the landlocked Sahelian countries, launched in Marrakech on December 23, 2023, in which his country did not participate?
“Solidarity and integration among African countries is a constant feature of Mauritanian diplomacy, especially when it comes to our neighbourhood. Contrary to what malicious tongues may say, Mauritania and Morocco enjoy relations based on solid foundations, blood ties, religion and historical relations that predispose them to further strengthening and development. What’s more, the clear will of the leaders of the two countries is in this direction, and this coincides with the very intertwined interests of the two peoples,” explains Merzoug.
So far, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, Mauritania’s only head of state who came to power after a transition between two elected presidents, succeeded another former general: Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who staged a coup in 2008 before being elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2014. Long close friends, the two men fell out in the wake of their ascension to power. Aziz, who was arrested in 2020 and is now imprisoned for illicit enrichment, has accused his successor and former friend of treason. “This is a story that the courts have decided. President Ghazouani is not a stranger to this affair,” says the foreign minister between endless phone calls, many of which relate to his boss’s inauguration ceremony scheduled for August 2.
LOS/sf/ac/lb/as/APA