A Mauritanian presidential election is scheduled for 11 March 2007.

This follows a military coup in August 2005 that ousted long-time president Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya; the head of the junta, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, said that he and the other members of the junta would not run for president in the election, which is planned to mark the end of military rule.

21 candidates have registered to run for president of which 19 were approved to contest the election. Ahmed Ould Daddah, the leader of the Rally of Democratic Forces—part of the Coalition of Forces for Democratic Change, which took a …