Mauritanians on Saturday voted in a historic election to choose a new president.
The election will afford citizens the chance to choose a successor to President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz.
President Ould Abdel Aziz, 62 has been in power since 2008 after seizing power in a coup.
He decided to step down after serving his two five-year terms as an elected president.
More than a million people were expected to participate in Saturday’s election.
There are six candidates competing for the presidency but the frontrunner is Mohamed Ahmed Ould Ghazouani.
Ghazouani is the country’s defence minister and a close ally of the current president Ould Abdel Aziz.
Other candidates include former prime minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, who is backed by Mauritania’s biggest Islamist party.
VIDEO: The first voters arrive at a polling station in Nouakchott, Mauritania. Six candidates are in the running to choose a successor to President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who is stepping down after his second and final term in office expires on August 1 pic.twitter.com/RRVT1L8Sx5
— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 22, 2019
Another prominent candidate is popular activist and anti-slavery campaigner, Biram Dah Abeid.
Most of the candidates had promised to tackle the country’s poor living conditions among many citizens.
Mauritania was the last country in the world to formally abolish slavery in 1981 but slavery is still a major issue in the country.
Mauritania achieved independence from France in 1960 but coups have been part of the country’s history.
There have been more than three coups in the country’s political history with the last taking place in 2008.
Source: Africafeeds.com
