Mauritania Presidential Election

The polls have opened for today's Presidential Election in Mauritania, the country's effort to move back toward a Representative Democracy after last August's military coup. Here's the first report from the BBC on how it is going. The concern, as always, is that just because there is an election there is no telling how long civilian rule will last...

Mauritania has been led by a democratically elected leader for just one year since independence in 1960.

Here's hoping for a clean election, and no major incidents of Islamist militant violence. Mauritania is an important part of Operation Enduring Freedom - Trans Sahara, the theater of the GWOT against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), so a return to normal governance there is part and parcel to victory there.

Here's the backgrounder on today's election from Angus Reid Global Monitor.