After independence from France on November 28 1960, President Moktar Ould Daddah, originally installed by the French, formalized Mauritania into a one-party state in 1964 with a new constitution, which set up an authoritarian presidential regime.
Mauritania annexed the southern third of the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in 1976, but relinquished it after three years of raids by the Polisario guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory.
Daddah was ousted in a bloodless coup on July 10, 1978 and the country was governed by committee of military officers until Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya seized power in a coup in 1984.
A new constitution was approved in 1991 legalizing opposition parties and Taya created the Parti Républicain Démocratique et Social (PRDS) in that year. Two presidential elections were held in 1992 and 1997 confirming Taya in his position as president.
On August 3rd 2005 the army took power and installed a military council to officially “bring an end to the totalitarian regime of president Taya and to put in place democratic institutions”. Since, the council is headed by Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, which declared it would remain in power for up to two years while it creates conditions for genuine democratic institutions and organizes elections.
On April 26 2006 Vall allowed ex-president Maaouiya Ould Taya to come back from his exile in Qatar, nevertheless forbidding him to participate in the coming elections of 2006 and 2007. On June 25 2006, the 1991 Constitution has been amended by a referendum reducing the presidential term to five years for a maximum of two terms and to limit the ability of the executive to rule by decree.