Mauritania’s President Wants Opposition out of Parliament

Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz has called for banning opposition MPs from entering the parliament, labelling them as “intruders” and “extremists.”

He said in an address to his party members, the Union for the Republic, in the northern locality of Akjoujt, that the presidential elections take place with the participation “of intruders with ideas and methods alien to Mauritania, in addition to extremists backed by foreign parties.”

The president was reported by the Mauritanian news agency as saying that “the opposition has asked in 2008 to starve the Mauritanian people”.

He urged voters to give his party a landslide victory “to prevent extremist parties”.

The opposition fears that the Mauritanian President is planning to stay in power for a third term.