Mauritania's National Assembly approved the government's general policy statement in the early hours of Tuesday by 145 votes to 21, with one abstention, the state news agency AMI reported. The outlet Alakhbar described the vote as parliament giving its confidence to Prime Minister El Moctar Ould Djay's second government, after a debate lasting more than 15 hours.
Ould Djay presented the statement on Saturday, staking his government's responsibility under Article 42 of the constitution, according to Madar, and returned on Monday to answer deputies. Madar's account of the Saturday speech, drawn from AMI and the outlet Essahraa, lists the commitments now carrying parliament's endorsement: pay or pension rises, or temporary financial aid, for low-income public-sector workers and retirees; temporary state payment of part of low-income households' water and electricity bills; a review of the mechanism used to set fuel prices; price ceilings on wheat, rice, sugar and cooking oil, extended to meat; and a special fund for regional development.
The prime minister said part of these measures would take effect once the government won parliament's confidence, and that a more detailed programme would follow when he appears before the Assembly at the end of January, Madar reported. No source reviewed says when payments will start or how they will be financed.
Speaking time was contested. Before the debate, Isselkou Ould Bahah, a deputy from the opposition party Tawassoul, urged opposition colleagues to boycott it after the Assembly's conference of leaders refused each deputy three minutes to speak, in a text relayed by the outlet Cridem, Madar reported. The reports reviewed do not show whether a boycott took place. AMI's account of Monday's debate says deputies who spoke praised the programme while pressing for faster completion of stalled projects, accountability and food self-sufficiency.
The vote gives parliamentary backing to those commitments. The prime minister’s promise that some measures would follow confidence does not specify which household payments begin immediately; the detailed programme is due at the end of January.