In his first broadcast address on Sunday, the head of a junta that toppled Mauritania’s president this month vowed to organise elections shortly and to crack down on corruption.
”I commit myself before you and before God almighty to organise free and transparent presidential elections as soon as possible,” General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said in remarks carried on television and radio.
The general, who did not specify a date for the vote, spoke 11 days after an August 6 coup that ousted democratically elected president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
He has since formed a state council comprised of 11 military officials, promised to hold elections and on Thursday appointed a new prime minister to head a transitional government.
In his address on Sunday, Ould Abdel Aziz sharply criticised the former president for allegedly tolerating a climate of corruption and for a miserable economic record.
The general also vowed to launch a ”fight without mercy against terrorism” — along with drug trafficking and organised crime in the country.
The largely desert nation has been shaken by three attacks since December 2007 that left seven people dead including four French tourists, leading to the cancellation of the world-famous Dakar Rally and a fall in vital tourist revenues.
The international community has denounced the coup, and on Saturday a small group of Mauritanian lawmakers announced a drive to return the president to power.
But the majority of lawmakers this week said they backed the coup — as did most of the country’s mayors — and National Assembly deputies have called for special moves that could open the way for a trial of the president. — Sapa-AFP