Mauritanians vote for president under military rule

Mauritanians voted in large numbers in presidential elections yesterday, nearly a year after the overthrow of the country's first elected president, with the coup leader expressing confidence of an outright win.

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who stepped down from power in April and resigned from the army in order to contest the election as the self-styled "candidate of the poor," predicted his victory would usher in "change for a prosperous Mauritania".

But one opposition candidate, Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, who overthrew dictator Maaouiya Ould Taya in 2005 and headed a junta for two years before handing over to a civilian government, claimed there has been massive fraud.

Ould Abdel Aziz, who toppled president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in the August 6 coup, is one of nine candidates running in the election designed to restore constitutional democracy to the northwestern African country.

Hours before the polls opened, shooting broke out late last Friday in Nouakchott between gunmen and police. Witnesses said two men were arrested and one escaped in a vehicle. A police source said yesterday the gunmen were thought to be those who killed American teacher Christopher Leggett in the same district on June 23 in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The main candidates have attempted to broaden their support base with talk of real change, economic and social progress and development in the largely arid but potentially oil-rich nation twice the size of France on the southwestern side of the Sahara.