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 NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) - Coup-plagued Mauritania held a second-round vote in its presidential elections Sunday, with two men vying to usher the northwest African country into civilian rule after years of dictatorship.
The runoff vote — held because no candidate won more than 50 percent in the first round two weeks ago — is the final stage of an election that has been widely heralded as Mauritania's first truly free presidential ballot following years of coups and dictators. The vote itself was organized by a ruling junta that seized power in a bloodless coup nearly two years ago.
Early in the morning, men in pastel robes and women in pale, gauzy wraps filed through schools converted into polling stations. In the capital, there were not the long, serpentine lines of the first-round vote on March 11, but many people turned out in the first hours of voting.
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