Niger announces presidential run-off candidates

NIAMEY — Niger opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou will face a protege of his long-time foe, ex-president Mamadou Tandja, in a March 12 run-off presidential poll, the electoral commission confirmed on Friday.Social Democratic Party leader Issoufou, 59, took 36.06 percent of the votes cast in Monday's first round of the election for a civilian president in the uranium-rich west African country after a year of rule by the military junta that overthrew Tandja.Former prime minister Seini Oumarou -- the 60-year-old leader of Tandja's National Movement for the Development of Society -- came second with 23.2 percent, commission chairman Gousmane Abdourahmane said on national television.Another ex-premier, Hama Amadou, was third with 19.82 percent, while former president Mahamane Ousmane took 8.42 percent. Turnout was a relatively good 52.83 percent.Oumarou, Amadou and Ousmane forged a pre-electoral pact meant to deny Issoufou victory, saying that the other two would back whichever candidate is left facing the opposition leader.However a senior member of Amadou's Niger Democratic Party, speaking anonymously, told AFP his camp was thinking again, and could plump for Issoufou, adding, "We need renewal, we can't keep going along with the old order."The legislative elections mirrored the presidential poll results, with Issoufou's Niger Party for Democracy and Socialism taking 39 of the 113 seats in parliament and Oumarou's party 26 in the first round.Amadou's party was third with 24 seats while Ousmane's won two.Junta leader Salou Djibo is expected to formally step aside for the newly elected civilian president on April 6.The military seized power last year to end a crisis triggered by Tandja's attempts to extend his rule beyond the constitutional limits. The ultimate winner of the Niger poll will have the task of leading one of the world's top uranium producers out from under the shadow of the growing threat of Al-Qaeda-linked militants.Observers from West African bloc ECOWAS said on Wednesday that the elections we

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