2024 Mauritanian presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Mauritania on 29 June 2024. Incumbent Mohamed Ould Ghazouani won re-election for his second and final term as President, increasing his vote share by four points.

Electoral system
Under Article 26 of the Constitution the President is elected for a five-year term using the two-round system. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of the vote in the first round, a second round is held two weeks later between the two candidates who received the most votes.

Candidacy is restricted to citizens by birth aged between 40 and 75 (on the day of the first round) who have not had their civil and political rights removed. Article 23 also stipulates that the President has to be a Muslim. Article 28 establishes a term limit of two mandates, allowing the President to only be re-elected once.

The election of a new president is required to take place between 30 and 45 days before the expiration of the term of the incumbent president.

For this election, campaigning was held from 14 June to 27 June. Polling stations were open from 07:00 to 19:00 local time (GMT).

Disqualified

 * Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, former General, President of Mauritania from 2008 until 2019. He is currently serving a sentence of five years in jail, with him being authorized by the judiciary to leave jail in order to present his candidacy file. His candidacy was later rejected by the Constitutional Council, which considered it incomplete, despite Ould Abdel Aziz delivering his documentation. His political movement claimed the Constitutional Council "suffered a coup".

Declared

 * Ahmed Ould Samba Ould Abdallahi, politician from the People's Progressive Alliance until 2024.
 * Mohamed Ould Cheikh, journalist and political analyst.
 * Ahmed Ould Haroun Ould Cheikh Sidiya, political activist and leader of the 8 September Current.
 * Hamidine Moctar Kane, economist.

Withdrew

 * Noureddine Ould Mohamedou, computer engineer and politician.

Campaign
Ghazouani campaigned in part on a security platform, while his opponents accused his government of corruption and clientelism, with Dah Abeid denouncing what he called “a catastrophic management of the state”. Other issues during the election included unemployment, poverty and access to utilities such as water and electricity. Observers from the African Union and the United States monitored the vote.

Aftermath
After the preliminary results showed Ghazouani leading in the election, Dah Abeid said that he would not recognize the results of “Ghazouani’s Ceni” and would hold "peaceful" demonstrations in the streets. A spokesperson for the electoral commission said it had recorded no anomalies or complaints regarding the vote.

On 2 July, three people were killed during clashes between the security forces and protesters demonstrating against the election results in Kaédi, which led authorities to block mobile internet services nationwide. Protests were also held in Nouadhibou, Rosso, Zouérate and Boghé. On July 4, the Constitutional Council confirmed Ghazouani as the winner of the election.