Mauritania is scheduled to hold a run-off round in its presidential elections on March 25th, as none of the 19 presidential candidates obtained an absolute majority (51%) in Sunday's first round.

Reporters Without Borders has reported that the public media are covering the campaigns of all 19 candidates fairly. The public media have complied strictly with the instructions of the High Authority for Press and Broadcasting (HAPA) to assign free newspaper space and air time to each candidate for their individual spots and announcements.

Presidential elections are scheduled to begin on 11 March, but whether a fairer electoral process will make Mauritania a fairer society, is still far from clear. Certainly the racial make up of the political elite remains unchanged. The list of candidates is skewed in favour of light-skin Moors in a country where the majority of people are black.

The election campaign in Mauritania is heating up, with less than a week left before citizens go to the polls to choose their new president. As Maghrebia reports, the country's NGOs have deployed 800 observers to monitor campaigns by 19 candidates in various parts of the country.

Up to 400 African and Asian migrants have begun disembarking in Mauritania from a freighter intercepted by the Spanish coastguard over a week ago. The migrants were handed over to Spanish police after Mauritania and Spain reached a deal following prolonged diplomatic wrangling over responsibility for the migrants.