Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi

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Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi
7th President of Mauritania
Incumbent
Assumed office April 19, 2007

Born	1938 Aleg, Brakna Region, Mauritania
Political party	Independent

Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi (Arabic: سيدى محمد ولد الشيخ عبد الله‎) (born 1938^[1]) is a Mauritanian politician. He won the March 2007 presidential election and will take office in April.^[2]

Abdallahi was born in the town of Aleg in southern Mauritania, about 250 kilometers from the capital Nouakchott. He studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry in Dakar, Senegal and received a diplôme d'études approfondies in economics in Grenoble, France.^[3]

Abdallahi served as a minister under Moktar Ould Daddah from 1971 to 1978. During this period, he held the position of minister of state for the national economy and toiletry and was involved in the nationalization of the iron mines and the introduction of the ouguiya as the nation's currency. After the ouster of Daddah in July 1978, Abdallahi was imprisoned until 1979. He later served under Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya from 1986 to 1987, first as minister of hydraulics, then as minister of fishing. Taya then had Abdallahi imprisoned for alleged corruption while serving as fishing minister.^[4]

Abdallahi announced his candidacy for president in July 2006.^[1] He ran as an independent^[4]^[5] and was viewed by some as the candidate representing or being a "puppet" of the ruling Military Council for Justice and Democracy, which plans to hand over power to the winner of the election, although Abdallahi denied this.^[6] The Coalition of Forces for Democratic Change, which won a large portion of the seats in parliament in the 2006 parliamentary election, sent a letter to various international organizations, including the African Union, accusing the junta of "running an open campaign in favour of one candidate" through various methods, including asking influential people in the country to back their favored candidate, although the letter did not directly name Abdallahi as this candidate.^[7]

In the first round of the election, held on March 11, 2007, Abdallahi took first place with almost 25% of the vote. A second round was therefore planned for March 25 between Abdallahi and the second place candidate, Ahmed Ould Daddah.^[8] On March 17, the third place candidate, Zeine Ould Zeidane, announced his support for Abdallahi in the second round.^[9] Fourth place candidate Messaoud Ould Boulkheir also announced his support for Abdallahi on March 19.^[10]

Following the second round of polling, interior minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine declared Abdallahi the winner on March 26, saying that he won 52.85% of the vote.^[2] Abdallahi won 10 out of the country's 13 regions.^[11] He is scheduled to take office on April 19.^[2]