Mauritania casts votes to select new president

Outgoing leader’s pick among six candidates

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — Mauritanians on Saturday went to the polls as the outgoing president’s preferred successor faced five opposition candidates in this West African nation threatened by Islamic extremism.

It was expected to be the country’s first peaceful transfer of power.

One candidate of sub-Saharan African descent wants to improve race relations in a country where activists estimate tens of thousands of people still live in slavery, despite the practice being banned by the government for decades.

Amnesty International has called on the next president to end rampant human rights abuses in this coastal Sahara Desert nation of 4.5 million people.

“Anyone who dares to stand up against slavery, discrimination and other human rights violations and abuses is at risk of arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention and even torture,” said Kine Fatim Diop, a West Africa campaigner for the human rights organization.

Mauritania has suffered five coups since gaining independence from France in 1960 and has been led by military rulers for much of that time. President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was head of the presidential guard when he seized power in a 2008 coup. He said he did so to prevent a return to repressive military rule.

He won a landslide election the following year in what opponents called a fraudulent “electoral coup.” Most opposition parties then boycotted the 2014 election, in which Aziz won 82 percent of the vote, according to official results.

The president is barred by the constitution from seeking another term.

His successor of choice is former Defense Minister Mohamed Ould El Ghazouani, a retired general who served as chief of staff of Mauritania’s armed forces.