I can comment on this subject because I was a candidate in the last presidential election, in 2014, and, to date, I am the only declared candidate for the next election, in 2019.
There are two opposition groups in Mauritania. There is the Arab-Berber opposition, which has emerged from the system and is the opposition of the privileged class. It opposes the group in power, but the two come from the same ethnic group. They are what we call the opposition in Mauritania. There is also the popular social opposition, the opposition of the disenfranchised and society's rejects. This is the opposition that is representative of the populations that are the victims of slavery and its aftereffects, who constitute roughly 50% of the population. There is also the opposition that represents the black populations, that is to say, the Fulani, Soninke, Wolof, and Bambara, who constitute about 30% of the population. These populations are the victims of government racism and domestic racism. They even suffered a genocide attempt that resulted in the massive deportation of 200,000 black Mauritanians. Those native inhabitants were deported, rejected, and driven away to Senegal or Mali by the racist Mauritanian authorities. My two countrywomen Kadiata Ba and Djeneba Diallo were among the people deported. The husband of one of them was killed along with relatives as part of the ethnic cleansing the Arab-Berber minority conducted against the blacks of Mauritania.
So 200,000 persons were deported to Senegal and Mali. Thousands of people were killed in pogroms in the streets of Nouakchott and other towns of Mauritania, and land and property were expropriated. Black officials were removed from the Mauritanian government and private sector. Massive numbers of blacks were eliminated during those years. Extrajudicial executions are still being carried out. Hundreds of black civilian and military officials, especially from the Fulani community, were arrested because they were Fulani and black. The authorities killed 616 officials during the ethnic cleansing. Others were released, but most were removed from their jobs and driven from the country.
This Mauritanian opposition does not represent the populations that are the victims of slavery or the black victims of racism and ethnic cleansing. We are the social and popular opposition. We, IRA Mauritania, the banned organization, and the entire IRA civil movement, represent those populations and their concerns.
The opposition that boycotted the elections is the opposition of the privileged. It has issues with the government, but their disputes do not concern racism and slavery. That opposition, when it denounces the government, does not talk about racism or slavery because that opposition is pro-slavery. Some of its members also took part in the ethnic cleansing conducted against the blacks. Those people are involved in slavery. They have slaves in their homes. That opposition denounces us and attacks us, as does the government.
We decided to run for election out of the blue. I was not sure my candidacy would be accepted because the organization I lead is banned, as is the political party that has emerged from our organization, a very strong and popular party that aims to establish and demand the principle of "one man, one vote" in Mauritania. However, I decided to run as an independent and my candidacy was accepted. That enabled us to speak out in the media, from which we are banned by the authorities. For the 15 days of the presidential elections, I was able to speak freely in the Mauritanian media as a candidate accepted by the constitutional council.
However, restrictions were imposed and there was massive fraud. There is a biometric census in Mauritania that eliminates blacks from the outset. All black Mauritanians are required to prove they are Mauritanians, whereas the Arab-Berbers are registered. The purpose of that arrangement is to reproduce an artificial minority to retain power in a democracy that is in fact an ethnic democracy consisting of a single ethnic group. We are excluded from that democracy on several levels because we are prevented from holding the necessary documents.
I would like to travel with my wife and children, but, for a year now, authorities have refused to provide me with passports for my children. They refuse to do so. I wanted to get my children out of the country because they are traumatized, but, to date, authorities have refused to issue them passports.
I am not the only person in this situation. Most of the black populations in Mauritania do not have civil documents. Authorities refuse to provide them because they still want the Arab-Berber minority to win a majority in the election. To do that, they eliminate documents for blacks and provide them to Arabs. In that way, they will always win majorities in elections.