UPDATE - Niger: Public voting in tense presidential polls

UPDATE - Niger: Public voting in tense presidential polls

Ruling party's Mohamed Bazoum pitched against former head of state Mahamane Ousmane

ADDS DEATHS OF ELECTION OFFICIALS FROM MINE

By Aurore Bonny

LOME, Togo (AA) - More than 7 million Niger citizens began voting Sunday in a second round of presidential elections.

Mohamed Bazoum, the candidate for the ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, led in the first round on Dec. 27 with 39% of the vote. Former President Mahamane Ousmane, the leader of the Democratic and Republican Renewal, an opposition party, came in second with 16.98%.

Outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou cannot run for a third term, according to the Nigerien Constitution.

Bazoum, 61, has held several top positions in Issoufou's government, including the foreign, interior and religious affairs ministries.

Ousmane, 71, Niger's first democratically elected president, was ousted in a military coup in 1996. He was also president of Niger's National Assembly between 1999 and 2009. Since 2006, he has headed the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, a regional political and economic union of 15 West African countries.

Voting began at 8 a.m. (0700GMT) and will continue until 7 p.m. local time (1800GMT).

The Sahel nation of around 24 million people is one of the poorest in the world, and its economy is also suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) has warned "troublemakers" and invited "various actors to show civic sense and discernment" during the election so that "everything takes place in calm and serenity."

The announcement came after the circulation of "false ballot papers," the commission said.

Late in the afternoon, local sources reported the deaths of seven local members of CENI when their vehicle hit a mine in Niger’s Tillaberi region near Mali.

Three other election workers were also injured in the blast.

"It is with great sadness that I learned of the deaths of seven election workers in the commune of Dargol following the explosion of a mine laid by terrorists who haunt the region," Bazoum said on Twitter.

Around 100 people were also killed in attacks in January after the first round of polls. The incidents occurred in two villages in Tillaberi.

The latest incident occurred after the ECOWAS observer team enjoyed a "calm and peaceful atmosphere" in the early afternoon. They had also expressed satisfaction since no major incident had been reported yet, despite low voter turnout at the opening of polling stations.


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