La derrota del antiguo partido autoritario dominante (prdr) en las elecciones legislativas de 2006 en Mauritania

Abstract

Mauritania represents a paradigmatic case. Following the 2006 legislative elections the previously dominant authoritarian party PRDR, declined in power from first to fourth position in terms of seats in the House of Representatives. This situation is unique and the raison we have chosen this subject as a research case because the scientific literature confirms that the dominant authoritarian parties continually stay in power despite multiparty elections. Our research examines why the PRDR loses seats and, the hypothesis is the high level of legislative volatility (77,95%) in 2006 elections explains this phenomenon. This answer has to be completed with the causes of the high volatility in Mauritania including: numerous small parties with short political lifespan and insufficient resources, conflicts resulting from ethno-linguistic cleavages, the clientelistic nature of the political culture, as well as an electoral system based in small territorial districts with plurality formula and independent candidates.