Leaders of a constituent party of the COD, Pacte national pour la démocratie et le développement (PNDD), announced in early December their intention to leave the opposition coalition and support the government in its reform programme. The move was reportedly led by Yahya Ould Waghef, the party's president and a former prime minister who in 2008 served under the presidency of Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi before he was deposed in a coup led by Mr Abdel Aziz (October 2008, The political scene). The party has a history of shifting loyalties. Although the PNDD was founded by Mr Abdallahi in early 2008 as a vehicle of support for his policy agenda in the National Assembly, he subsequently lost the support of most the party's parliamentarians, many of whom welcomed his forcible ousting by the current president. The latest volte-face by the PNDD lacks the backing of the whole party, which has since split. On December 12th dozens of party members, including two vice-presidents and one parliamentarian, announced their mass resignation in protest at what they view as a betrayal of the PNDD's principles. Specifically, the rebels insist that former coup leaders (including Mr Abdel Aziz) should be forbidden from becoming president for life.

The departure from the COD coalition of the PNDD and its subsequent split have weakened the opposition further, following the decision of the RFD in September to break with COD policy and start talks with the government without reference to the Dakar accord (October 2010, The political scene). Although the RFD has not formally left the COD and continues to describe itself as an opposition party, its actions have greatly weakened the opposition's unity. That even part of the PNDD has rallied to the government is a boon to the president, who may well chalk up more successes in his strategy of co-opting the opposition.