Mauritania Postpones Senatorial Elections

Mauritania has postponed its senatorial elections to focus on persuading the opposition to drop plans to boycott the vote, the government has announced.

A first round of polls had been planned for March 15 but the opposition National Forum for Democracy and Unity (FNDU) coalition announced last month it would not take part.

"The postponement of elections for two-thirds of the Senate to an unspecified date aims to promote dialogue between the majority and the opposition," Interior Minister Mohamed Ould Ahmed Rare told reporters late Wednesday.

Elections for the 58-member senate, which is dominated by Mauritania's ruling Union for the Republic, were last held in 2010.

The two sides have made contact with a view to negotiating an acceptable timetable and conditions for the vote, according to documents seen by AFP.

The 12-member opposition bloc was unlikely to have won seats in any case, since senators are voted by municipal councilors, and almost all FNDU parties boycotted the last local elections in 2013.

Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz seized power in the northwest African nation in an August 2008 coup, won disputed elections in 2009 and extended his mandate in less controversial polls last year.

The mainly Muslim republic, sandwiched between the west coast of Africa and the Sahara desert, is seen by Western leaders as a bulwark against al-Qaida-linked groups.

Main opposition parties have never accepted Abdel Aziz's 2009 victory in an election they said was marred by massive fraud and regularly denounce his "dictatorial power".