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| - Two people have died in unrest in Niger and hundreds have been arrested since the results of presidential elections were announced on Tuesday, Interior Minister Alkache Alhada said. "The toll is two dead," Alhada told reporters on Thursday, adding that 468 arrests had been made, "including certain politicians" whom he did not identify. He accused a prominent opposition figure, Hama Amadou, of being "the main person responsible" for the unrest. "(He) is being sought and as usual he is on the run, but we will find him," Alhada said. Violence erupted after the electoral commission declared former interior minister Mohamed Bazoum victor in Sunday's runoff vote with 55.75 percent, while opposition candidate Mahamane Ousmane garnered 44.25 percent. Ousmane angrily disputed the result as fraudulent and claimed he narrowly won with 50.3 percent of the vote. The elections have been trumpeted as a democratic watershed for the Sahel state -- the world's poorest nation according to the UN's benchmark of human development, and a country wrestling with two jihadist insurgencies. President Mahamadou Issoufou is voluntarily stepping down after two five-year terms, paving the way for the first elected transition since independence from France in 1960. Police clashed with demonstrators in the capital Niamey on Tuesday and Wednesday, while in Dosso, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the city, the offices of a pro-government party were damaged by fire. One of the two fatalities died of an epileptic fit during a protest, Alhada said. The other, who was shot dead, was the bodyguard of politician Seini Oumarou, an unsuccessful candidate in the first round of voting on December 27 who had urged supporters to vote for Bazoum in the runoff, he said. There was also "destruction of infrastructure, of public and private property," Alhada said. A senior security source, speaking earlier on condition of anonymity, said those arrested included former armed forces chief of staff Moumouni Boureima, who was suspected of fomenting unrest. Boureima is reputedly close to Amadou, by some standards Niger's most popular opposition figure. Amadou was banned from contesting the election because of a conviction for baby trafficking -- a charge he says was politically motivated -- and threw his support behind Ousmane. Unknown assailants also attacked the home of a reporter in Niamey for Radio France Internationale (RFI), which is widely followed in Niger. Journalist Moussa Kaka, who was unharmed in the attack, said Thursday the assailants ransacked his home, "breaking everything," and set fire to part of it. bh-stb/ri/dl
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