Mauritania elects Senate in latest democracy step

NOUAKCHOTT, Jan 21 (Reuters) Mauritania held senatorial elections today, the latest step in a staggered transition to civilian rule promised by the military rulers of the Saharan Islamic state.

The vote for the 56-seat Senate followed parliamentary polls late last year, the first since a bloodless military coup toppled President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya in August 2005.

The military junta that ousted Taya has pledged to hand over power to the winner of a presidential election scheduled for March 11 in the largely desert oil producer, which spans Arab and black Africa.

The 56 senators to be appointed, including three representing Mauritanians living overseas, were being elected by 3,688 municipal councillors. Official results were expected over the next few days.

''This is a vote marked by the approach of the presidential election in March,'' one state official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Around 20 candidates have declared their intention to run for the presidency and feverish negotiations are taking place about possible electoral alliances, observers said.

''We expect to have some senators elected,'' said Ahmed Ould Daddah, whose liberal Assembly of Democratic Forces (RFD), won 15 seats, the biggest number of any single party, in the 95-member National Assembly in last year's parliamentary polls.

Ould Daddah, who will be a presidential contender in March and whose RFD party is part of the former anti-Taya opposition coalition that won 41 assembly seats overall, said the political climate ahead of the presidential vote was confused.

''It seems there's going to be money handed out and consciences bought ... there's a lack of a clear line,'' he said.

Foreign governments see the March presidential election as a test of the promised democratic handover by the military junta.

Bordering Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania is an ally in the US-led fight against Islamic terrorists in the Sahara. Its strategic importance has increased since the start of oil production last year.

It has also become a focus of international efforts to stem a tide of African illegal migrants leaving West Africa in treacherous voyages to Spain's Canary Islands to seek jobs in Europe.

REUTERS DKA BD1829