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Provisional Results Have Issoufou Winning Niger Presidency

   | Dakar  March 14, 2011
   Rival  presidential  candidates  Mahamadou  Issoufou,  left, and Seini
   Oumarou  greet  each other as they cross paths at a polling station in
   Niamey, Niger, March 12, 2011

Photo: AP

   Rival  presidential  candidates  Mahamadou  Issoufou,  left, and Seini
   Oumarou  greet  each other as they cross paths at a polling station in
   Niamey, Niger, March 12, 2011

   The  head  of  Niger's  electoral  commission, Abdourhamane Ghousmane,
   announced  full  provisional  results  for  the  second  round  of the
   country's  presidential  poll.  He  says  veteran  opposition  leader,
   Mahamadou Issoufou, won 58 percent of votes, while rival candidate and
   ally of the ousted president, Seini Oumarou, won 42 percent.
   Issoufou  led  the  first  round  of  polling  in  January and was the
   favorite  for  Saturday's  run-off  thanks  to  the  backing  of  four
   first-round  candidates. He ran on a platform of change, while Oumarou
   promised  to  continue  and  consolidate  the efforts of the country's
   ex-president.
   It  has  been more than a year since soldiers stormed the presidential
   palace and ousted President Mamadou Tandja, who had grown increasingly
   unpopular  after  forcing through constitutional changes to expand his
   powers and extend his mandate.
   The country's military leaders appear to be living up to their promise
   to  restore  democracy  and  the presidential poll marks the last of a
   series of nationwide elections held since the coup.
   The  electoral  commission  did  not  report  any major incidents with
   voting  Saturday,  where  it  said  48  percent of Niger's 6.7 million
   registered  voters  went  to  the  polls, a slight drop from the first
   round turnout of 51 percent.
   Regional  election  observers  expressed  satisfaction  with the vote,
   which the African Union deemed fair and transparent.
   African  Union  observer mission leader Khalil Ababacar Sall says what
   mattered  is  that  here  we have leaders who have done what they said
   they were going to do. He says Niger has organized at least five polls
   in the last six months. He says everyone recognized the organizational
   problems  encountered  during  the  early  polls  and  made remarkable
   improvements that led to fewer problems during Saturday's vote. Â
   The  new  constitution,  voted  on  by  referendum  in  October, gives
   soldiers until April 6th to return the country to civilian rule. Niger
   has had four military coups since 1974.
   The  constitutional  court  has  two  weeks to certify the provisional
   results.

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