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MAURITANIA
Majlis Al-Chouyoukh (Senate)
ELECTIONS IN 2009

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A historical Archive of past election results for this chamber can be found on a separate page

Parliament name (generic / translated) Barlamane / Parliament
Structure of parliament Bicameral
Chamber name (generic / translated) Majlis Al-Chouyoukh / Senate
Related chamber (for bicameral parliaments) Al Jamiya-Al-Wataniya / National Assembly
BACKGROUND
Dates of election / renewal (from/to) (from/to)8 November 2009
15 November 2009
Purpose of elections Elections were held for 17 of the 53 indirectly elected seats in the Senate.
The term of the Senate is 6 years. One-third of the membership is renewed in indirect elections every two years. In January 2009 the Senate chose the one-third of members (17 members in total) to be renewed in 2009 (Group A). On 6 February 2009 the Government issued a decree setting Senate elections for 3 and 10 May 2009. However on 3 April it issued another decree postponing the elections without setting new dates. The postponement was due mainly to the delayed presidential elections.

In the meantime in March 2009 supporters of Mr. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz - who had ousted the then President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in a coup in August 2008 - formed the Union for the Republic (UPR) in view of the presidential elections. Mr. Aziz was elected as President in July. The first round of Senate elections was held on 8 November. A run-off election for one seat was held on 15 November. The UPR won 13 of the 17 seats. In all two women were elected. On 22 November one male UPR member was designated by the Senate to represent Mauritanians in sub-Saharan Africa.

After the 2009 renewal the UPR held 38 seats in all and its allies - the UDP and the Fadhila - had one seat each. An opposition parliamentary group the Ech-choura held 12 members. It comprised the Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD) the Union of Forces of Progress (UFP) as well as former government members. The members of the "Tewassoul" Party and the Mauritanian Party of Union and Change (HATEM) sit as independents since these parties hold less than three senators which is the minimum number to form a parliamentary group in the Senate. There were eight women out of the full 56 members of the Senate.
STATISTICS
Voter turnout
Round no 18 November 2009
Round no 215 November 2009
Distribution of seats
Round no 1
Political Group Total Grand total
Union for the Republic (UPR) 12
Independents 2
"Tewassoul" Party 1
Union for Democracy and Progress (UDP) 1
Round no 2
Political Group Total Grand total
Union for the Republic (UPR) 1 13
"Tewassoul" Party 0 1
Independents 0 2
Union for Democracy and Progress (UDP) 0 1
Distribution of seats according to sex
Men
Women
Percent of women
15
2
11.76%
Distribution of seats according to age
Distribution of seats according to profession
Comments
Sources:
- Senate (26.12.2009 27.01.2010 28.01.2010)
- http://www.ami.mr/fr/defaultfr.htm

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