40% of Mauritanians expect presidential elections to be 'unfair'

Some 59.4 per cent of Mauritanians would cast their votes in the upcoming presidential elections and 40 per cent expect the elections to be “unfair”, a new poll has revealed.

The poll was conducted by the Mauritanian Centre for Research and Strategic Studies (CMERS) over eight days. The poll also showed that 34 per cent of the Mauritanians would boycott the elections and 6.6 per cent of them said they were undecided.

While 40 per cent expected the elections “would not be fair nor transparent”, while 38 per cent felt that they “will be transparent and fair”, and 22 per cent chose the answer “I do not know”.

About 41 per cent of the Mauritanians, who said they are planning to boycott the elections, said they are responding to political forces that called for boycotting the elections.

A further nine per cent said they would boycott the elections because they do not care about them, while 20.3 per cent said they would not vote because they believe that elections are “not serious”. However, 28.6 per cent of the Mauritanians said they do not trust any of the nominees.

Turnout in the municipal elections conducted at the end of last year was 75 per cent despite calls of boycott by opposition. Mauritanian authorities are worried that turnout in the presidential elections will be lower.

The National Elections Committee launched a campaign to incite people to take part in the elections.