Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi

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President of Mauritania
Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi سيدى محمد ولد الشيخ عبد الله

Incumbent
Assumed office 19 April 2007
Prime Minister	Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar Zeine Ould Zeidane Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghef
Preceded by	Ely Ould Mohamed Vall

Born	1938 Aleg, Brakna, Mauritania
Political party	Independent

Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi (Arabic: سيدى محمد ولد الشيخ عبد الله‎) (born 1938^[1]) is a Mauritanian politician. He won the March 2007 presidential election and took office on 19 April 2007.^[2]

Abdallahi was born in the town of Aleg in southern Mauritania, about 250 kilometers from the capital Nouakchott.^[3]^[4] He received his primary education in Aleg and his secondary education in Rosso, Mauritania and then at the Ecole Normale William Ponty in Senegal.^[3] He subsequently studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry in Dakar, Senegal^[3]^[4] and received a diplôme d'études approfondies in economics in Grenoble, France.^[4]

Returning to Mauritania, Abdallahi became Director of the Plan, and he worked on the Second Plan for Economic and Social Development.^[3] He was then appointed to the government as a minister in September 1971 by President Moktar Ould Daddah. During the seven years that followed he served in a series of positions in the government, including that of Minister of State for the National Economy.^[3]^[5] He was involved in the nationalization of the iron mines and the introduction of the ouguiya as the nation's currency. After the ouster of Daddah in July 1978, Abdallahi was imprisoned until 1979.^[5]

From 1982 to late 1985 Abdallahi lived in Kuwait where he worked as an adviser to the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.^[3]^[4]^[6]

After returning to Mauritania, he served in the government under Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya from early 1986 to September 1987, first as Minister of Hydraulics and Energy, then as Minister of Fishing and Maritime Economy.^[3]^[5] Taya then had Abdallahi imprisoned for alleged corruption while serving as Minister of Fishing.^[5]

From September 1989 until June 2003 he lived in Niger, working again for the Kuwait Fund as an adviser.^[3]^[6]

Abdallahi announced his candidacy for president on July 4, 2006.^[1] He ran as an independent^[5]^[7] and was viewed by some as the candidate representing or being a "puppet" of the ruling Military Council for Justice and Democracy, which planned to hand over power to the winner of the election, although Abdallahi denied this.^[8] The Coalition of Forces for Democratic Change, which won a large portion of the seats in parliament in the 2006 parliamentary election, sent a letter to various international organizations, including the African Union, accusing the junta of "running an open campaign in favour of one candidate" through various methods, including asking influential people in the country to back their favored candidate, although the letter did not directly name Abdallahi as this candidate.^[9]

In the first round of the election, held on March 11, 2007, Abdallahi took first place with 24.80% of the vote.^[10] A second round was therefore planned for March 25 between Abdallahi and the second place candidate, Ahmed Ould Daddah.^[11] On March 17, the third place candidate, Zeine Ould Zeidane, announced his support for Abdallahi in the second round.^[12] Fourth place candidate Messaoud Ould Boulkheir also announced his support for Abdallahi on March 19.^[13]

Following the second round of polling, interior minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine declared Abdallahi the winner on March 26, saying that he won 52.85% of the vote.^[14] Abdallahi won 10 out of the country's 13 regions.^[15] He took office on April 19^[2] and named Zeidane as prime minister on the next day.^[16]

1 Presidency
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Presidency

After the government announced a 112 million USD budget deficit, mostly due to shortfalls in oil exports due to technical problems, a 25% pay cut in the salaries of Abdallahi and the members of the government was announced on June 7, 2007.^[17]

Abdallahi addressed the nation on June 29 for the first time since taking office. In this speech, he referred to the "dark years" of 1989–91, condemning the violence of that time, expressing compassion for its victims, and emphasizing the importance of tolerance and reconciliation. He said that "the State will entirely assume its responsibility to ensure the return" of Mauritanian refugees and promised that they could all "benefit from a reintegration programme in their native lands with the support of the HCR, the Mauritanian state, united national effort and the cooperation of our development partners." He also mentioned an anti-slavery bill approved by the government.^[18]

Plans by Abdallahi's supporters to create a new party to back him were initiated in 2007; the opposition has criticized this as potentially meaning a return to a single-party dominant system, as existed under Taya.^[19] The party, called the National Pact for Democracy and Development (Adil), was established at a constitutive congress in early January 2008.^[20]

On September 26, 2007, while Abdallahi was at the United Nations in New York City, he met with a delegation of the Forces of African Liberation of Mauritania (FLAM), a movement seeking the improvement of the conditions of black Mauritanians; this marked the first time since FLAM was banned in 1986 that a Mauritanian head of state had met with it.^[21]