Mauritania: Will the election end the crisis?

NOUAKCHOTT- The Mauritanians are called to the polls Saturday to elect their president from among nine candidates, at an election expected to put an end to the crisis arising from the military coup of 6 August 2008.

•     The voting shall begin at 7:00 am (local and GMT) and ends at 7:00 pm in this largely desert country, the link between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa.
  
      Nine candidates are competing to run for more than 1.2 million voters in more than 2,500 polling stations scattered over a territory twice as large as France.
  
      Among the favourites is the former head of the junta, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who resigned in April of power and the military to run for the highest office, presenting himself as the candidate of the poor and advocating a “constructive change.”
  
      The main opponents of the junta are also in the race but in no particular order: Ahmed Ould Daddah, leader of the main opposition party, and Messaoud Ould Boulkheir, candidate of the National Front for the Defense of Democracy (FNDD) opposed the coup of 6 August
  
      Another favourite: Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, author of a coup in 2005 before returning power to civilians two years later after a “transition,” often hailed as exemplary.
  
      A few hours before the vote, an exchange of fire took place Friday evening in Nouakchott between police and “armed men”, wounding one of the “armed men”, according to security sources.
  
      According to witnesses, a “an armed man” was arrested, another fled on board a vehicle and a third was wounded by bullets and threatens to detonate an explosive belt he has around the body.
  
      The injured man was lying in a street in the Ksar district in the centre of the capital, and is surrounded by security forces, said Friday evening a journalist.
  
      According to a source safe, it could be a group of Islamist fighters, who was guarded by police.
  
      In this same area of Ksar, on June 23, an American citizen, Christopher Leggett, 48, was killed in broad daylight by several bullets in the head. The murder was claimed by Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi).
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.