The founding ceremony of the Movement for the Homeland, headed by Jamil Mansour, who withdrew from the Tawasul Party (social networking sites)

Nouakchott -

Three decades ago, specifically with the beginning of the democratic process in Mauritania and the allowing of political pluralism in 1991, the Mauritanian opposition formed a unified front for change that included various political movements. Leftist, Islamic, nationalist and human rights groups opposed to then-president Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya.

At that time, Ahmed Ould Daddah (81 years old) was the most prominent opposition candidate to fight President Taya, and Messaoud Ould Belkheir (80 years old) was the fighter and the fiercest opponent of the president’s policies.

Since then, the opposition's rise began, and for three decades it continued in fierce confrontations with successive regimes, which were held in a thousand regards with each election.

But this time, it seems that the rivalry has begun to subside. As the presidential elections scheduled to be held in the middle of this year approach, the ruling regime may not feel competitive, given the contagion of withdrawals sweeping the opposition parties since Mohamed Ould Sheikh Al-Ghazouani came to power.

Recent periods have witnessed repeated withdrawals of prominent and former elected leaders from the Tawasul Party, which is assuming leadership of the opposition establishment for the third time in a row.

The recent parliamentary elections resulted in the clinical death of traditional opposition parties that suffered the phenomenon of withdrawals. But the exacerbation of this phenomenon among the ranks of the opposition in recent times, and in “Tawasul” in particular, has raised a question mark about the future of what remains of the opposition under the current regime that seeks to win its favor and absorb it.

 Successive withdrawals

Although the spark of withdrawal included all sectors of the opposition, Tawasul's share of it was the most uproarious, perhaps because it is the most cohesive party.

The wave of withdrawals began sweeping it during the era of former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, but the most notable of them was in 2019, prior to the election of the current Mauritanian president, when groups of the Mauritanian opposition came out in support and support of the “National Consensus” candidate, the largest of which was the “Rashidoun” movement, which withdrew from the “Tawasul” party. Led by former Sheikh Omar Al-Fath and a number of withdrawing party leaders.

But the strongest blow to the party, which has an Islamic orientation, came in late 2023, after the founder and former president of the party for two terms, Muhammad Jamil Mansour, decided to resign from the party, following what he called “major imbalances and clear mistakes that I repeatedly pointed out and were not corrected.”

The withdrawals continued in the president's footsteps shortly after his withdrawal, as the Secretary of Finance in the Executive Committee and the former parliamentary representative for the Tintan province, Mohamed Al-Mukhtar Ould Talib Al-Nafi, announced his resignation, followed by the Secretary of Legal Affairs, Dr. Sidi Ab Ali, and the President of the Youth Council, Othmane Foday Marika, and others.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Dr. Mohamed Al-Amine Ould Shuaib, a member of the political bureau of the Tawasul Party, said, “These withdrawals do not constitute an exceptional case in the local political scene, as the ruling party witnessed a wave of withdrawals during the nominations crisis and others, and we also followed withdrawals from one party to another in many cases.” .

Ould Shuaib attributes the reasons behind “political travel” in part to the policy followed by the ruling regimes at their various stations, their tireless efforts to control the political map and adjust it according to their agenda, and the continuous effort to influence everyone who opposes them by various means. Also, part of these withdrawals is required by the review process. Normal in positions and orientations.

Successive withdrawals from the Tawasul Party after the withdrawal of Jamil Mansour, the former head of the party (communication sites)

New stream

Months after his withdrawal from Tawasul, Mohamed Jamil Ould Mansour announced the establishment of the “For the Homeland” movement, a party project that includes diverse figures from different schools of thought, regions, and ethnicities. Ould Mansour confirmed that his movement took a position to support the president in the upcoming elections.

This movement caused such a stir that some considered it an existential threat to the opposition, especially Tawasul. Despite the latter’s assertion that these withdrawals are individual and will not harm their party “which is built on an idea and the idea does not die,” the head of the Maghreb Center for Maghreb Studies, Dr. Didi Ould Salek, suggested that “this new movement aims to eliminate communication, and not the opposition because it is already dead (…), or as if With this movement, the regime wants to kill communication, or create an entity that will absorb its strength and momentum, or weaken it until it is weak.”

Ould Salek added to Al Jazeera Net, "The authority has always provided temptations to hard-working opposition leaders and symbols to join the regime, and left the young bodies floundering without a head, which has weakened political life in Mauritania and the elites, and discouraged society from clinging to supporting the opposition."

As for Dr. Mohamed Lamine Ould Shuaib, he says that they are in “communication,” and that the opposition in general is not fed up with any new political formation, and “we consider that the field of political action is broad enough for everyone.”

He added to Al Jazeera Net that "a large percentage of the members of the New Movement are originally supporters of the regime, and activists in political formations (parties or initiatives) from the majority constituency, some of whom are from the ruling Justice Party, and of course among them are important leaders from the Tawasul Party, and all the leaders have withdrawn, but what is surprising is that Focus on communication leaders only and not other leaders.”

Many supporters do not find themselves in the traditional majority, and many opponents are not satisfied by the traditional opposition.


The majority in its current form is no longer convincing, and the opposition in its current form is no longer convincing.


Mojiba: Movement for Mauritania and the Silent Majority Movement.

- Muhammad Al-Amin Al-Fadel (@elvadel) February 6, 2024

 The lure of power

Although the influx of those withdrawing from the opposition to the loyalists is not new, some loyalists believe that the primary reason for this is the political calm that the current president has adopted since he assumed power, which was not available in previous periods.

In various periods, starting from the era of Ould Taya, through Ould Abdel Aziz, the regimes worked to lure opponents in order to dismantle them.

Dr. Ould Salek explains the unity of those withdrawing towards the authority for two reasons:

  • The first is the style of the military regimes since the beginning of the distorted democracy of Ould Taya and what is known as the democracy of Paul to the present day, which continues to lure opposition leaders and work to dismantle and kill them.

  • The second is that the opposition parties are expelled as a result of their circumstances, the weakness of their means, their besiegement by the regimes, the starvation of their members, and the weakness of their social incubator.

Opposition parties and forces discussed during a meeting held today, Sunday, at the headquarters of the Democratic Opposition Foundation, topics including the comprehensive national dialogue and the presidential elections in #Mauritania pic.twitter.com/4tbnFBhI8I

- zahraa bdnt el ahmad (@BantElahmad) January 21, 2024

What horizon for the opposition?

In addition to the fact that it is already facing widespread criticism in the Mauritanian street, due to its truce with the regime over the past years, observers believe that the opposition will suffer in the upcoming elections, after these specific withdrawals and the formation of emerging movements that support the current regime.

But Dr. Ould Shuaib believes that "the new movement will not have a significant impact, because most of its members were originally from the majority and voted for the current president."

As for Dr. Didi Ould Salek, he does not see any prospects for the opposition in the upcoming elections. “Because of its current situation, and the despair in political and societal circles,” he believes that unless the mechanisms of governance in Mauritania and the mechanisms for managing the political process change, there is no hope for a person who has not been nominated by the authority to succeed, due to the weakness of society and the authority’s control over it.

Source: Al Jazeera