2023-05-03 18:16:47
The electoral campaign for the May 13 election started on April 28, 2023 in Mauritania. Twenty-five political parties are going to conquer the ballot boxes for the municipal councils which will be elected by proportional representation, the regional councils and finally for the one hundred and seventy-six seats of deputies in the National Assembly which will be distributed by majority vote to two rounds. In the opinion of observers, the ballot remains open, even if part of the opposition – but also of public opinion – doubts its reliability. The ruling party is still suspected of using its means and its administration to influence the smooth running of the vote.
While waiting for D-Day, the candidates of the two thousand seventy-one lists throw their strength and their means to seduce the one million seven hundred seventy-seven thousand fifty voters, including 52.5% of women, spread over four thousand seven one hundred and twenty-nine polling stations to win two hundred and thirty-eight municipalities and thirteen regional councils. A not yet closed number of voters advanced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) a few days ago. Additional details provided by the said commission, one thousand three hundred and seventy-eight lists of candidates for the municipalities, with 32.57% women, one hundred and forty-five lists for the regional elections, with 35.10% women, and five one hundred and fifty-nine lists for deputies to the Assembly, with 36.73% women.
The competitors will fight with unequal weapons and chances, insofar as some are experienced in the maneuver when others approach it for the first time. Some parties were able to present many candidates, INSAF in the lead, followed by Tawassoul, then the UDP and the Sawab-RAG coalition… game and hope to glean some advisers, even deputies. In any case, we would like to have, at the end of the elections of May 13, a much more “representative” assembly from the “color” point of view. INSAF has chosen this time to bet on people in this direction (mixed national list, list of women, lists of young people). Even if this choice and the composition of these national INSAF lists are not likely to influence the vote on the laws that the future government will have to present, it is important to underline this gesture. Done on purpose? Does it reflect the political will of the President of the Republic? The question deserves to be asked, especially when it is related to the call of Djeol which we have been harping on for a few weeks. The choice of timing or the concomitance of the facts (appeal and campaign) do not seem insignificant. It is a question, underline some, of encouraging Mauritanians to vote for diversity, to work for positive discrimination which all the same still has a very long way to go, given what is practiced and experienced on a daily basis in within the administration and the dressed corps. The CENI did not fail to note that young people and people with specific needs also benefited from similar positive discrimination in the constitution of candidate lists…
Despite these efforts, however, there is no doubt that INSAF – the ruling party – will emerge victorious from these elections: it has the means, all the means. The other parties – especially the opposition – seem to have lost ground. Some could remain in the pole of the majority, others will emerge…
What about citizens’ concerns?
Election campaigns here are usually synonymous with sudden and significant flows of money. “They are going to take out the tickets”, we already hear people say. Who, for his wardrobe and his logistics, who to bribe potential voters… and they are obviously waiting to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity. In big cities like Nouakchott, graphic designers, tent sellers, travel agencies, fuel sellers, switchboard operators are in demand, as are artists. Inside the country, the arrival of campaign teams and executives is giving a breath of fresh air to local businesses. The few tickets distributed to relatives, a few notables and griots, troubadours and brokers relieved especially poor families but could also influence the choice of voters. Consciousness shopping…
But we have been observing for some time a change in people’s attitude, some of whom do not hesitate to say, in the face of the arrogance of candidates and executives and the lack of impact, on their living conditions, of the mandates of their mayor or MP: “Take their money – it’s ours!” – and vote against them! The supreme power of the polling booth is particularly noticeable in the region of the River where executives and elected officials are struggling a lot to avoid such a vote-sanction. Elections are indeed an opportunity for people to judge the results of those who run their municipalities or represent them in the National Assembly…
With the same questions everywhere: “What have they done for us since they’ve been here?” Do they only care about their pockets and their families? “Existential questions in that they affect the daily life of citizens: school, health, civil status, exploitation or expropriation of land, opening up, employment… Few candidates will mention the recurring rise in prices, the insecurity that is starting again beauty in Nouakchott, the use of psychotropic products by our young people, the corruption that persists in devouring our resources, the glaring inequalities between the national components, the gap that continues to widen between certain Mauritanians who enrich themselves in a illegal, shameless and frustrating for their fellow citizens, and others whose descent into hell has become almost irreversible… But these facts are no less real and the mayors who have been able to pull their towns up are rare. These include Ghassem Bellali from Nouadhibou, Mint Abdel Maleck (Tevragh Zeïna and Nouakchott region), Bâ Adama from Boghé, Mohamed Biha from Tidjikja, Athié Abdoul from Néré Walo, Sy Moussa from Aéré M’Bar, Mohamed Lemine Chouaibou from Toujounine, Sidi Diara from Rosso…
During the campaigns, few are the candidates who concoct programs that are reliable, achievable and profitable to the populations. They are content with outlines and generalities, caravans and festive gatherings, gargantuan meals, artistic and folkloric evenings to occupy the people they too often consider as ignorant, naive, chickens to be plucked… They are content, at best , to manage daily life and the Regional Development Fund (FRD). Decades of decentralization sacrificed! They justify their inability by the lack of means of the communes. And what will happen with the next legislature is likely to be even more disappointing: many contenders are not equipped to lead a local community, a region, or represent a constituency with dignity in the National Assembly. In the majority of cases, the nomination of candidates was made according to subjective and partisan criteria, money too often weighed.
The electoral campaign is therefore far from being an opportunity for the candidates to offer voters an embarrassment of choices on the programs, to be pedagogues to convince them: it unfortunately remains a folklore. We will live, as in the past, fifteen days of recreation and distraction. To the detriment of the public service whose leaders, starting with our ministers, have been parachuted into the regions to lead the campaign of the party in power. Influence peddling and insider trading? We are there, again and again, in all likelihood…
Dalai Lama
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