National Assembly (Mauritania)
The National Assembly (; ) is the legislative house of the Parliament of Mauritania. The legislature has 157 members, elected for five-year terms in single or two-seats constituencies. From 1961 until 1978, the only legal party in the country was the Mauritanian People's Party (, PPM). The legislature was disbanded after the 10 July 1978 coup. In 1992, a bicameral legislature was established, consisting the National Assembly and Senate of Mauritania. In the 1990s, a multiparty system was introduced in Mauritania. However, the Democratic and Social Republican Party (PRDS) dominated the parliament until a coup in 2005 . After the 2008 military coup, the centrist populist Union for the Republic has been the dominating force of the National Assembly. On October 9, 2018 Cheikh Ahmed Baye was elected speaker of the National Assembly. Electoral system. The National Assembly is made up of 157 seats that are elected every five years according to a parallel voting system. 117 seats are filled in 47 electoral districts (four being reserved to the Mauritanian diaspora), which may elect from 1 to 4 seats, except Nouakchott, which elects 18. Districts with one or two seats are elected using a two-round single-member  majority ballot, while those with three or more are elected using proportional representation using closed lists. The remaining 40 seats are elected by using proportional representation from two lists with 20 candidates each: a national one and a women-only one, guaranteeing a minimum representation for women in the National Assembly. Lists with more than two candidates must alternate between male and female candidates. There is no electoral threshold.