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History and Government
History: Mauritania lies across one of the great trans-Saharan trade routes. For over 500 years up to 1674 when the Arabs defeated them, the Almoravid Dynasty controlled the trade in gold, slaves and salt. Various European navigators made fitful contact with the region, but French domination of the region was only established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mauritania achieved full independence from France in 1960. Since the mid-1970s the country has been locked in conflict with its two northern neighbours, Algeria and Morocco, concerning the future of Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) which was ceded jointly to Morocco and Mauritania by Spain in 1975. The main opposition to the 1975 settlement came from the Polisario Front, which demanded self-determination for Western Sahara (and achieved recognition by the UN as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic).
The dominant political figure in Mauritania for the last two decades has been Maaouiya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya, a former army officer who first seized power in a military coup in 1984. In common with many other African nations, Mauritania came under pressure in the early 1990s to introduce representative civilian government. A new constitution was introduced in 1991; elections for a presidency and a bicameral parliament were held the following year. Taya reinvented himself as a civilian politician and comfortably won the presidential race. His supporters in the Democratic and Social Republican Party secured a healthy majority in both houses; those results were confirmed in 1996 and again in 2001. Taya was elected to a second six-year term in 1998.
Despite the DSRP’s firm grip on Mauritanian politics, it has not gone unchallenged and there has been growing discontent over its conduct of elections and the government’s often heavy-handed approach to political opposition. The main opposition comes from the organised labour movement and Islamist organisations. Both are subject to periodic crackdowns. There are also tensions between black Mauritanians and those of Arab origin (reflected in a notorious pogrom of blacks in 1989 during which thousands were killed and exiled).
Like all countries in the Sahel region, Mauritania has suffered from recent droughts. Debt relief has eased the country’s financial position but the mainly agricultural economy remains in difficulties.
Mauritania is a member of the Union of the Arab Maghreb, the North African political and economic union formed in February 1989 with Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. Relations with Morocco, which have been strained in the past because of Western Sahara, have improved since the change of regime in Morocco. To the south, there have been a number of border disputes between Mauritania and Senegal over agricultural rights, although current diplomatic relations are normal. Mauritania is one of the few countries in the world to maintain a good relationship with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It is also the only Arab League nation apart from Egypt and Jordan to have established (in 1999) diplomatic relations with Israel
Government: The latest constitution, which allows for a multi-party political system, was introduced in July 1991 after approval in a national referendum. Executive power rests with the President, elected by universal suffrage, for a six-year term. The bicameral legislature, also popularly elected, comprises a 79-seat National Assembly (elected for five years) and a 56-member Senate with a six-year mandate. The President appoints a Prime Minister who is Head of Government.
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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