Surely Some of the Longest Names in Coup History

Yesterday's presidential election in Mauritania, a surprisingly large North African country, right beneath Morocco, yielded victory for General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (pictured above looking unbelievably pleased with his office). This is, in effect, a second-wave coup. Aziz took power by force last year after then-president Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi dismissed him and his crew, and since then he's insisted that he's really a champion of democracy, and that

he had to execute two coups (an earlier one in 2005, as well), in order to protect the fragile Mauritanian democratic ideal from the fate that befalls so many other African countries. That is, military coups.

But to head off any criticism of his landslide electoral victory (52% of the vote, just enough to avoid a run-off round of voting), Aziz's spokesmen came out immediately after the results came in.

Interior Minister Mohamed Rzeizim: "The elections were carried out in excellent conditions. I salute the Mauritanian electorate for responsibility and civic duty. I also want affirm here that there was absolutely nothing suspicious about the vote count."

That the government felt the need to say this before any scandal had broken out doesn't exactly augur well, and of course, accusations started flying soon after. Whether the vote was rigged or not is immaterial, though. The vote cannot be valid when a military general executes a coup and then runs for election a year after. Mauritania wasn't in any way close to an actual open democratic environment. But dictators keep thinking that it's ok to perform a coup as long as at some point down the line you also run an election. They don't goddamn cancel each other out.

But it's not all bad, since there does seem to be some genuine outrage coming from Mauritania's opposition parties. It's doubtful that Aziz (pictured left demonstrating to his nation the correct YMCA form) will actually engage with the criticism. Still, it's more than one would expect from a country which still actually practices slavery, and there's a chance the international community might pick up on it. This has basically shaped up to be the Summer of Electoral Disputes, after all.

P.S. Seriously read the slavery link. 20% of Mauritania's population lives in actual slavery. WTF.