Voters in the poverty stricken West African nation of Mauritania overwhelmingly approved a new Constitution in a weekend referendum, Interior Ministry officials said on Monday.
Officials said that based on early returns they believed that 80% to 90% voted on Sunday to approve the Constitution, the first in a series of votes to return the country to democracy after a bloodless military coup last August ended more than 20 years of autocratic rule under Maaouiya Ould Taya.
Turnout was between 65% and 73%.
Results from six of the country’s 13 regions were already in.
In the capital Nouakchott, where a quarter of the country’s population lives, slightly more than 95% voted to approve the Constitution, according to Interior Ministry figures reported by national radio.
In Naoadhibou, the north-western port city that is the country’s economic capital, more than 96% backed the new Constitution.
Voting on Sunday took place ”under good conditions, without incident or problem”, said Interior Ministry spokesperson Sidi Yeslem Ould Amar Cheine.
Observers from the African Union and the Arab League said they were happy with the way the vote went, noting a ”good atmosphere” and a ”strong mobilisation of voters”.
The new Constitution, which replaces the one dating from 1991, has already won the approval of most political players and local civic and political rights groups.
The constitutional reform set into motion a series of votes to return the country to democracy. Municipal and legislative elections are to be held in November, as well as separate polls in 2007 to elect members of the upper house and a president.
The new Constitution provides for a presidential regime giving the head of state major powers, including the appointment of the prime minister, though the Parliament can vote no confidence in the government or censure it.
It also limits the length of presidencies to two terms of five years and sets a maximum age of 75 for a president. Previous presidents in the Islamic state have been able to serve a six-year term of office renewable indefinitely.
Ould Taya, who took office after a coup in December 1984, had subsequently been elected to three six-year terms.
Future heads of state will take an oath not to revise or back any efforts to change the law with respect to presidential terms.
Among early voters on Sunday was the leader of the junta, Ely Ould Mohamed Vali, who said he was confident of a huge vote in favour of the text.
”This is a great day and a rebirth for Mauritania … I am sure that all Mauritanians feel the same way and that for this reason the Constitution will receive massive support.”
But he pledged that ”whatever the result I shall respect my promise” to hand back power to civilians in 2007.
Only two small parties, the Alliance for Justice and Democracy and the Party for the Third Generation, and an exiled group campaigning for the rights of black Mauritanians, called for a boycott of the vote.
They argue that the new Constitution ignores issues of ”cohabitation between the different national communities”, such as Arabs and black Africans, and does not address the thorny issue of slavery, which was officially abolished in 1981 but is still being practised in parts of the country, according to rights activists. — Sapa-AFP