People's Progressive Alliance (Mauritania)

The People's Progressive Alliance (French: Alliance populaire progressiste, APP) is a small political party in Mauritania.

The President of the APP is Messoud Ould Boulkheir,^[1] who was a candidate in the November 2003 presidential election, which was won by President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.^[2][3]

After Taya's ouster in August 2005, Boulkheir stood as the APP candidate again in the March 2007 presidential election.^[1] In this election, held on March 11, he placed fourth, receiving 9.79% of the vote;^[4] he subsequently backed Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi for the second round,^[5] despite the participation of the APP in the Coalition of the Forces for Democratic Change along with the other second round candidate, Ahmed Ould Daddah.^[6] Abdallahi won the election, and in April 2007, Boulkheir was elected as President of the National Assembly.^[7]

The APP won 5 seats in the National Assembly of Mauritania in the 2006 parliamentary election, along with another two seats won jointly with the Mauritanian Party for Union and Change (HATEM).^[8] In the government of Prime Minister Zeine Ould Zeidane, named in April 2007, three members of the APP were appointed as ministers.^[9] In the 21 January and 4 February 2007 Senate election, the APP won only one out of 56 seats.

On September 2, 2007, Boulkheir said that the APP would not join a new party being formed to support Abdallahi.^[10]

Following the August 2008 military coup d'état, the APP, along with the pro-Abdallahi National Pact for Democracy and Development (PNDD-ADIL), joined the four-party National Front for the Defense of Democracy, which opposed the coup.^[11]

As of 2023, the APP party has no representation in the Mauritanian Parliament, it has zero seats.^[12]