Mauritian opposition parties will boycott the legislative election

Mauritania's main opposition parties announced a boycott of November's legislative election on Friday after talks with the government over preparations for the vote collapsed without agreement. The Coordination of the Democratic Opposition (COD) said after three days of talks with the government that 10 of its 11 member parties had decided to boycott the vote.

The talks were the first between the two sides in over four years. President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz seized power in a 2008 coup in the Islamic republic, which straddles black and Arab Africa on the continent's west coast. The government has scheduled the municipal and legislative elections for November 23. The opposition demands the polls be postponed until April to allow time to prepare a voter census and electoral roster, and wants guarantees of the independence of the electoral commission.

Original article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/04/mauritania-politics-idUSL6N0HU2E920131004