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Mauritania Flag Change Proposal

Last modified: 2016-11-10 by rob raeside
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[Mauritania flag change proposal] image by Ivan Sache, 17 October 2016

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Flag change proposal (2016)

The ruling party in Mauritania, Union pour la République (UPR), has proposed to amend the national flag by the addition of a thin red stripe at the top and bottom. The stripes symbolize "the efforts and sacrifices that the people of Mauritania will keep consenting, to the price of their blood, to defend their territory".

The proposal was part of a more general project of institutional reform presented during the Conference on Inclusive Dialogue. Inaugurated on 29 September 2010, the conference rallied the ruling party and the "moderate" opposition, here the Alliance populaire progressiste (APP), while the "radical" opposition refused to join. The proposed reform also included the adoption of a new national anthem and the proclamation of the Second Republic. Observers quickly pointed out that the Constitution would be automatically invalidated, especially the Articles prohibiting the President of the Republic to run for a third mandate. The second mandate of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2014) should end in 2019; the announcement of the reform, accordingly, was probably not a mere coincidence. The suspicion of "Constitutional coup" was confirmed by a declaration of the government's spokesperson, Mohamed Lemine Ould Cheikh, who said that "mandate limitation was an anti-democratic principle". This statement prompted Messaoud Ould Boulkheir, the historical leader of the APP, to withdraw in the beginning of October from the conference, which he called a "farce".

http://www.pointschauds.info/fr/2016/10/06/le-parti-au-pouvoir-propose-un-nouveau-drapeau-pour-la-mauritanie/ - Points Chauds Online, 8 October 2016
http://afrique.le360.ma/mauritanie/politique/2016/10/09/6298-mauritanie-la-2e-republique-une-diversion-pour-un-3e-mandat-presidentiel-6298 - 9 October 2016

Ivan Sache, 17 October 2016