Niger polls open for presidential, legislative elections

 Niger began voting Sunday in presidential and legislative elections that could see the West African country's first democratic transition of power since independence amid a growing threat from jihadists in the region.

Polls opened with a good turnout.

“Equipment was well installed and the first voter was able to vote,” just after 8 a.m. at the Diori school in Niamey, according to the head of the polling station there, Khadija Hassan.

Everything has been going normally.

Other voting centers in the capital reported successful openings as well, with COVID-19 restrictions in place.Some 7.4 million Nigeriens are voting to elect legislators and the successor to President Mahamadou Issoufou.Issoufou, who has served two terms, is stepping down, paving the way for the first peaceful transfer of power between two elected presidents since Niger became independent from France in 1960. Niger has seen four coups since then.

A peaceful transfer would be significant not only in Niger but also in West Africa, where leaders recently have held on for disputed third terms in Guinea and Ivory Coast.Niger's next president will have to deal with major problems including extremism, poverty, displacement and corruption.Attacks by Islamic extremists has affected local elections for weeks. In the most recent incident, the Nigeria-based Boko Haram fighters killed more than 28 people in Toumour in the Diffa region, the day before the vote.

Niger also faces increasing attacks from fighters linked to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced despite the presence of thousands of regional and international troops.Former foreign affairs minister Mohamed Bazoum, the candidate of the current president’s Nigerian Party for Democracy and Socialism, is among the front runners in the election.

A teacher by training, Bazoum has promised to build boarding schools for girls to encourage them to stay in school longer, which he said would help reduce child marriage in a country with many teenage pregnancies.Another candidate, retired Gen. Salou Djibo, a former head of state who staged a coup in 2010, has said he is best placed to fight extremism.

Ibrahim Yacoubou, a former foreign affairs minister who was kicked out of the ruling party because of indiscipline, is campaigning against corruption.But Bazoum’s biggest competition comes from former President Mahamane Ousmane, who has the endorsement of opposition leader Hama Amadou, whose candidacy was rejected by the constitutional court because of a one-year prison sentence for charges of baby-trafficking. Amadou denies the charges, calling them politically motivated.

If no one candidate wins more than 50%, Nigeriens will vote in a second round on Feb. 21.

(IMAGE CREDITS:AP)