After the highly contested legislative elections in May 2023, the Mauritanian prime minister revealed the members who will make up the national observatory responsible for monitoring the presidential election of June 2024 to ensure transparency (Onsel). The body, which had not been operational since 2014, is made up of members of civil society, according to the government. But the majority of presidential candidates denounced its composition, seeing it as a strategy by the authorities to “manipulate” the vote.
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With our correspondent in Nouakchott, Léa Breuil
The opponent Biram Dah Abeid, the candidate of the first opposition party of Tawassoul or the candidate and professor Outouma Soumaré are among the five candidates in the presidential election to have declared not “ recognize this observatory “. They declare not to have been consulted during the last discussions on this subject and denounce in their press release “ use of public utility services for the benefit of the regime candidate “.
“ This is a unilateral act, which really does not correspond to anything and which violates all legal and political proceduresexclaims Maître El Id Mohameden, presidential candidate. The government named its supporters, members of its ruling party and those who have always been implicated in fraud cases. »
For Oumeir Beye, member of the executive board of this national observatory, the criticisms mainly result from a poor understanding of the observatory. He would like to recall that it was established by a decree adopted in 2013, following consultations to involve civil society in the elections. It is in no way a political tool, he defends.
He adds that the Prime Minister can only designate the 12 members on the proposal of civil society. The executive office is made up of executives. “ They thought it was the Ceni (Independent National Electoral Commission, Editor’s note)where each party must be represented: that is absolutely not that, exclaims Oumeir Beye. Each of the members comes from a civil society organization, the legitimacy of which cannot be disputed. There is one, it is the president who has actually been a minister, but she is one of the greatest specialists in electoral observation in Africa. »
THE candidates Protesters announced the establishment of a “ legal committee ” And ” technical » to monitor, among other things, violations of the law and monitor appeals.
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