Mauritania is on Saturday heading to polls in the first election since the nation achieved independence in 1960, which may result in the first democratic transition of power.
According to BBC news reports, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has seized power in 2008 in a coup, but then agreed to quit the office and acted in accordance with a two-term limit of office.
Six candidates are competing against each other for the post of president and more than a million citizens are eligible to head for polls on Saturday.
The nation’s defence minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Ghazouani is the frontrunner, who is a close ally of the present president, according to BBC West Africa correspondent Louise Dewast reports.
After boycotting various previous elections, opposition candidates were also joining the race in a move viewed as a positive action ahead.
Five other contenders include a well-known anti-slavery campaigner and activists, Biram Dah Abeid, and ex-Prime Minister Mohamed Ould Boubacar.
Mauritania electoral commission has vowed a fair and free election, despite the opposition’s claims that the body is biased in favour of the governing party.
On Friday, Mauritania’s press authority said no complaints had been yet received over the coverage of the campaign.
Slavery remains a hot issue. Mauritania was the final nation in the globe to abolish slavery formally in 1981 but however, it continues till the date. In 2007, criminal laws was passed which permits stakeholders to be prosecuted, but yet have to be fully enforced effectively.
Mauritania received independence in 1960 from France after which the nation’s first president declared power for 18 years before being ousted in a military coup.