Mohamed Bazoum Wins Niger Republic’s Presidency

Mohamed Bazoum Wins Niger’s Presidency

Niger Republic former interior minister, Mohamed Bazoum has won the nation’s presidential election run-off with 55.75% of the votes cast flooring his rival, according to the Electoral Commission, CENI.

   He rose above his rival Mahamane Ousmane, 71, who garnered  44.25 percent of the votes.

Bazoum was the frontrunner in the first-round balloting on December 27 with 40% of the vote among 30 candidates. In Sunday’s run-off, overshadowed by militant attacks that killed seven electoral officials in the south-eastern Tillaberi region, Bazoum, who is of Arab descent, defeated former President Magamane Ousamane 71, who got 44.25% of the vote

The election was marred with violence as on Monday, as Nigeriens awaited the results of Sunday’s vote, a polling official was also killed by a roadside bomb that left nine others injured in the south-eastern Diffa region.

The final official result will be certified in a few days’ by the Constitutional Court,

On Tuesday, Ousmane’s campaign camp was alleging there were widespread fraud in the election claiming widespread votes theft and ballot boxes stuffing with threats against voters  and voting officials. Ousmane though provided no evidence and it is yet to clear if further evidence would be provided.

“We demand the immediate suspension of the publication of these results, which do not in any way take into account the expression of the Nigerien people for change,” the campaign team alleged in a statement as the election commission released the vote tally.

Outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou is voluntarily stepping down after two five-year terms, opening the way to Niger’s first handover of power between elected leaders since independence from France in 1960.

The impoverished country in recent years has been struggling with armed group attacks that have spilled over from Mali in the west and Nigeria in the southeast.

On the polling day, seven local CENI workers were killed when their vehicle hit a landmine in the western region of Tillaberi.

On Monday, a similar explosive device claimed the life of a polling station head in the southeastern region of Diffa. Nine other electoral workers were injured.

In the first round of voting, held on December 27, Bazoum, a former interior minister and Issoufou’s right-hand man, had picked up just more than 39 percent of the vote. Ousmane came second, at just below 17 percent.

Ousmane became the country’s first democratically elected president in 1993, only to be toppled in a coup three years later. This was his fifth attempt at gaining the presidency since his overthrow.

Niger struggles with frequent droughts, insurgency and widespread poverty.

The world’s poorest nation according to the UN’s development rankings for 189 countries, it outlawed slavery as late as 2003.

It has been affected by a spillover of violence from two jihadist insurgencies in neighbouring Mali and Nigeria.

Additional reporting, BBC