Although nominally led by party President Sidi el-Mokhtar N'Diaye, it was de facto headed by Moktar Ould Daddah.
[1] Daddah founded the party in May 1958 in an attempt to unite the various competing political groups within Mauritania into a single inclusive organisation so as to both strengthen the credibility of Mauritanian independence movement and secure his own power.
[1] The party was strongly nationalistic, and opposed the inclusion of Mauritania into either a Greater Morocco, or any other form of federation, rejecting a proposal by France for a federation uniting all of its Saharan African territories into a Common Saharan States Organization.
[2] The party sought to maintain the balance between Mauritania's Moorish and Black African communities, and local PRM committees were set up that were open to all citizens.
In July 1958 more radical anti-French and Arab nationalist members were expelled, and later formed the Nadha party on September 26, 1958.