Parti du Peuple Mauritania
The Parti du Peuple Mauritania or PPM for short ( Arabic حزب الشعب الموريتاني, DMG Ḥizb aš-šaʿb al-mūrītānī ; German, for example, Party of the Mauritanian People ), is a Mauritanian political party and was the only approved party in the country's political system from 1961 to 1978.
After independence from France in November 1960, President Moktar Ould Daddah founded the PPM as an amalgamation of the previous ruling party Parti du Regroupement Mauritanien (PRM) and the opposition parties Association de la Jeunesse Mauritanienne (AJM) and the Morocco-affiliated Nahda . In December 1961, the largest Mauritanian parties were united in an assembly to form a single party. Moktar passed a repressive party law and as president had practically unlimited power. In July 1978, in an economic crisis, the first civil government was replaced by the military in a coup and the party was banned.
More military coups followed after each short term until Colonel Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya came to power in 1984 .