Observers have noticed intense movements of the Front Polisario in Mauritania, a day before the presidential elections scheduled for this Saturday.
The goal, according to them, is to influence the electoral process of the country that neighbors Morocco.
This comes at a time when the separatists Polisario Front seeks escalation with Morocco, in response to the growing international support for the autonomy initiative proposed by Morocco.
In this context, Hassan Ramo, a research professor in Mohammed V University in Rabat and A member of the Center for Geo-Political and Strategic Studies, discussed the evidence and messages of these movements, which he described as a ‘ploy to exploit the elections by employing or promising to employ Moroccan detainees in the Tindouf camps to vote for certain Mauritanian parties in order to influence the elections.’
Ramo, in an interview with Hespress, considered this employment to be ‘marginal in terms of numbers, given that the Mauritanian electorate is 1.8 million voters,’ noting that ‘Algeria is considering the same scenario in the presidential elections to increase voter turnout, given the Algerian people’s boycott of this fabricated drama.’
On another hand, the specialist also mentioned that some of the movements “These remain mere rumors intended to create the illusion of a political role for the Polisario in the Mauritanian political scene.” While also alerting that ““the meetings that have actually taken place are more personal in nature than institutional, given the tribal affiliation or personal interest relationships with some politicians.” He emphasized that these movements “reflect the general frustration among the Polisario leaders and their supporters due to the growing support for the Moroccan proposal and the state of despair in the camps.”
Hassan Ramo evicted,” the refusal of a lot of the big influent partie in Mauritanian, whether it the part of power nor the principal opposition parties, to meet with the envoy of the chief of the Polisario Front despite certain kinship and tribal affiliation relationships between them,” which reflects, according to him, “a certain political and electoral maturity among Mauritanians.”
Among the signs of the failure of the Polisario Front’s separatist movements in Mauritania, the same university professor mentioned ‘the democratic process that all Mauritanian parties are trying to succeed and continue,’ noting that the southern neighbor ‘has grown weary of their infiltrations, which violate its sovereignty and invade its territory, especially after the completion of the security wall between Mahbes and the Algerian-Moroccan-Mauritanian border point, meaning that any movement by the Polisario southward (the safe zone) will only come at the expense of violating Mauritanian territory.’
In turn, Abdel Fattah El Fathi, Director of the Sahara and Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said that these movements ‘remain merely a reminder to maintain communication with some minor parties that support the separatist proposal, and an expression from the Polisario leadership of its fear of any future development in Mauritanian public opinion in general regarding the Moroccan Sahara issue.’
El Fathi recalled, in an interview with Hespress, that a group of Sahrawis hold Mauritanian nationality, ‘but this electoral bloc remains too weak to have any significant impact or achieve deep political results,’ confirming that ‘the separatist front will not be able, through these movements, to influence the development of Mauritanian-Moroccan relations and Mauritania’s position, within the framework of positive neutrality, on the Sahara issue.’
