| schema:articleBody
| - Niger voted Sunday in a presidential run-off between two political heavyweights that is set to bring about the first democratic transition of power in the coup-prone country's history. The world's poorest nation according to the UN's development rankings for 189 countries, Niger is also struggling with jihadist insurgencies that have spilled over from Mali and Nigeria. Only 7.4 million of the country's 22 million people were eligible to vote on Sunday -- a reflection of the population's youthfulness. Thousands of soldiers were deployed nationwide for the vote, set to usher in a peaceful handover between elected presidents, a first since Niger's independence from France in 1960. Outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou's decision to voluntarily step down after two five-year terms was welcomed in a region where many leaders have tried to cling to power. "I'm proud to be the first democratically elected president in our history to be able to pass the baton to another democratically elected president," Issoufou said as he voted at city hall in capital Niamey accompanied by his two wives. His successor will either be his right-hand man and anointed heir Mohamed Bazoum or Mahamane Ousmane, who became the country's first democratically elected president in 1993, only to be toppled in a coup three years later. Ousmane, 71, is running for president for the fifth time since his ouster in one of four military coups the country has seen along with six elections. Both candidates are stalwarts of Niger's political scene. One voter, 29-year-old student Idrissa Gado, said the election is a "source of pride" for Nigeriens. "The next president must act against the rebels, it's the great concern in Niger that must be dealt with, we want peace and security," Gado said as he cast his ballot in Niamey. Whoever wins, 42-year-old tile-layer Ibrahim Kadi Mahmane said he hoped the new leader "doesn't forget the poor and the people living in villages". Several foreign observer missions were on hand for the vote including from the Economic Community of West African States and the Francophonie organisation of French-speaking countries. The CENI independent electoral commission said in a statement Sunday that "fake voting cards" had been in circulation in several regions of the country. Voting in his native village of Zinder, Ousmane said: "If the citizens see that these elections were once again... rigged, I fear the situation will be hard to manage." Political alliances loomed large, with Bazoum the strong favourite after winning 39.3 percent of the first round vote on December 27. "I hope that luck will be with the winner... I have many reasons to believe it's indeed on my side," Bazoum said as he voted in the capital Niamey. The 60-year-old former interior minister has already sealed the support of the candidates who came third and fourth in the first round. "Bazoum has a coalition that is expected to win if the voting instructions of the parties which support him are respected by their activists," said Ibrahim Yahya Ibrahim of the International Crisis Group think-tank. But, he cautioned, it was "very far from being won". Ousmane took nearly 17 percent in the first round. He can count on the support of a coalition of 18 opposition parties called Cap 20-21 as well as Hama Amadou, previously thought to be the most formidable candidate against Bazoum. Amadou was banned from running because of a prison sentence for baby trafficking which he has slammed as politically motivated. The opposition filed an unsuccessful appeal against the result of the first round, claiming fraud, but has since given up its boycott of CENI. A diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the concern was not so much "unfair practices" but the ruling party's imposing electoral machine. The elections "aren't perfect, at least they are elections", the source said. Bazoum campaigned on continuity with the previous government, which promised development while facing the world's highest birthrate -- an average of seven children per woman. "To absorb this population growth would take incredible economic growth," a Western diplomat said. An immense security challenge also awaits the victor. A brutal jihadist insurgency is intensifying in the country's west, while Islamist militants from the Nigerian movement Boko Haram wage incessant attacks in the southeast. Like its Sahel neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger is struggling to cope, with hundreds of troops killed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes. Polling stations were scheduled to close at 7 pm (1800 GMT). bh-ah/stb/pvh/gd
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)