Voters in Mauritania went to the polls Sunday with hopes that whoever wins the first presidential election since a coup two years ago will not lead the country back into totalitarian rule.
Men lined up outside voting booths, eager to be among the first to vote, the AP reported.
Power in Mauritania has never changed hands at the ballot box, although past votes have been held by dictators amid opposition cries of fraud. The last president, Maaoya Sid‘Ahmed Ould Taya, took power in a 1984 coup and held it until a popular military junta led by Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall toppled him in August 2005.
"We have big hopes for democracy," said Ahmed Ould Daddah, a leading candidate in Sunday‘s race and a longtime opposition figure. "People are afraid of a return to the old ways. They are paranoid about this."
Daddah is a brother of Mauritania‘s post-independence leader and first president, Mokhtar Ould Daddah. Other top challengers include Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, a former Cabinet minister, and military commander Saleh Ould Hanenna, who led three failed coups against Taya in 2003 and 2004.
Vall has vowed no member of his 17-member junta will run.
© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
