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NIGER-VOTE-RUNOFF
Niger presidential tip Bazoum takes lead for runoff vote
NIAMEY, Jan 2, 2021 (AFP) – Ruling party candidate and former minister
Mohamed Bazoum won the first round of Niger’s presidential vote, the
electoral commission announced on Saturday with a runoff set for next month.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said the close ally
of outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou garnered 39.33 percent of the votes
at last weekend’s election.
Bazoum will face former president Mahamane Ousmane, who won 16.99 percent,
for the February 20 runoff in the West African country fighting a bloody
jihadist insurgency.
Former prime ministers Seini Oumarou and Albade Abouba respectively came
third and fourth with 8.95 percent and 7.07 percent of the ballots.
Turnout reached 69.67 percent or 5.2 million of the 7.4 million registered
voters, CENI said.
The 60-year-old Bazoum, who has been both interior and foreign minister,
campaigned on promises of improved security and education and had hoped to
clinch victory in the first round.
Bazoum’s ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS) is also
leading in the legislative vote held at the same time with 80 of the 165
seats and five diaspora seats remaining to be decided.
The former French colony is also hoping to see a first peaceful handover
between elected presidents. However, insecurity overshadowed campaigning,
with Niger battered by jihadists on its southwestern border with Mali as well
as the southeastern frontier with Nigeria.
Five years of violence have cost hundreds of lives with many more
displaced.
Issoufou, who was elected in 2011 after the country’s last coup in 2010,
is voluntarily stepping down after two five-year terms.
In a New Year radio address he hailed the election as “a new, successful
page in our country’s democratic history”.
Niger has been unstable since gaining independence 60 years ago and is
ranked the world’s poorest country in the UN’s Human Development Index.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1735 hrs