Niger, January 31: Nearly a year after the military took power in a coup in Niger, people in the West African country go to the polls to choose a new president and parliament in nationwide elections.
Voting opened at 8 a.m. at 22,000 polling places across the African state on Monday with over six and a half million registered voters who are slated to elect the country’s president from among 10 candidates.
The vote is an attempt to restore constitutional order and democracy since the military junta toppled former president Mamadou Tandja in February 2010.
Longtime opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou and former Prime Ministers Seini Oumarou and Hama Amadou are seen as favorites among the candidates.
A candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to be elected in the first round.
——–Agencies