Mauritania Junta Promises to Hold Polls Soon

Mauritania’s new military junta has announced that it will hold a free and transparent poll “soon”. In a statement read on national TV one day after deposing the country’s democratically elected president, the junta said Mauritania will be governed by an 11-member council headed by the former commander of the presidential guard, Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, while they engage various political parties and civic bodies in organizing the elections. The junta however declined to specify any election dates or justify the Wednesday coup. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the country’s deposed President, Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi, have remained unknown since he was arrested at the presidential palace on Wednesday morning.[PE]