French legislative election, 1951 (Mauritania)

Elections to the French National Assembly were held in Mauritania on 17 June 1951. Mauritania had one seat in the Assembly, which was won by Sidi el-Mokhtar N'Diaye, a member of the Mauritanian Progressive Union.^[1] He defeated the incumbent, Horma Ould Babana, who had been elected as a member of the French Section of the Workers' International in the last election, but had since gone on to leave the SFOI and form his own party, the Mauritanian Entente.^[2]

Background

The UPM was a conservative and regionally based organisation that had been expressly formed in order to oppose Babana's Mauritanian Entente.^[2] The party was supported by the colonial administration and its allies, the traditional Maure secular and clerical ruling classes, who feared the Mauritanian Entente's "socialist" program.^[3] Babana had spent much of his five-year term in Paris, resulting in him becoming disconnected from the changing Mauritanian political climate, and contributing to a sense of alienation from him amongst Mauritanians. This was reinforced by his strong defence of Moorish interests, which served to alienate black Mauritanians, and also by his disinterest in Mauritanian independence.^[2]

Results

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Sidi el-Mokhtar N'Diaye	Mauritanian Progressive Union	25,039	48.7
Horma Ould Babana	Mauritanian Entente	23,649	46.0
Ba Hamat		2,432	4.7
Three other candidates		305	0.6
Invalid/blank votes		756	−
Total		52,181	100
Registered voters/turnout		135,586	38.5
Source: Sternberger et al.[4]

References

1. Pazzanita, Anthony G. (2008). Historical Dictionary of Mauritania. Scarecrow Press. p. XXX.
2. Pazzanita, Anthony G. (2008). Historical Dictionary of Mauritania. Scarecrow Press. p. 255.
3. Warner, Rachel. "Postwar Reforms". In Handloff.
4. Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Zweiter Halbband, p1382