Niger
Niger’s election campaign as exciting as never before
21. February choose to live their President and a new Parliament. It is the second choice after the last military coup in 2010. President Mahamadou Issoufou hopes on a re-election.
Opening of a new road junction with a bridge, at the inauguration of a railway line, school buildings, irrigation: Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou and his Ministers had in the last few weeks, all hands fully to do. Even before the official start of the electoral campaign on 31. January should Radio and television as much as possible without the Pause of the benefits that can report to the government of the country since the last election in 2011, have brought.
15 candidates apply at the 21. February to the presidency. President Issoufou would like to have a second term. They can also live a new Parliament to choose. However, the concrete programs of the candidates were able to voters so far, little experience. Instead, argued the government, Opposition and civil society about whether orderly elections are at all possible.
Celebrities Oppositionspolitikerin power
Oppositionspolitikerin Bayard does not believe in a fair election.
One of the few women among the nigrischen politicians occurs, therefore, this Time not only to do. Mariama Gamatié Bayard, 2011 was the first and so far only woman for the office of President in the first place. It is still one of the most prominent voices of the Opposition. A Basis for a fair approach sees in these elections is not: “Therefore, I have decided that I am not as one of the extras available to place to make the picture beautiful,” she says in a DW Interview. “I don’t want to be there, so you can say, Yes, there is also a woman.”
The most important point of contention: the voters ‘ register. The registration authority (sometimes had a such Chaos was created, that even the members of the government parties get angry. Until the beginning of January, it succeeded the organization of the Frankofonie to convey. Overall, you can find 7.5 million names on the lists. Niger has a very young population, more than half of its estimated 18 million inhabitants, is too young to Choose.
An important candidate is sitting in prison
Members of the opposition such as Mariama Bayard criticize that the government all the means at its disposal to use, to the Opposition, the election campaign more difficult. While the influential state-run television almost only about the activities of the members of the government reported, were opposition media into the sights of the judiciary. Opposition demonstrations were repeatedly banned, allegedly for security reasons. Central exciters, the delay time is, however, the detention of the main opposition candidate.
The main opposition candidate Hama Amadou is in prison.
Hama Amadou, was once President of the European Parliament and head of the party “MODEN-FA Lumana”, sitting since November in pre-trial detention. He is part of a Babyhändler-Rings have been. Nevertheless, the constitutional court in his candidacy approved. “The dogged determination with which he pursues is, goes far beyond the usual level,” criticized his lawyer Boubacar Mossi, who is also Deputy leader of the Lumana in Parliament: “This is political persecution. And it’s true of his supporters. All the leaders of the Lumana from their strongholds, sitting currently in prison!” And si indicates that all of the other main suspects in the scandal surrounding the alleged Baby trafficking released on bail.
Minister of justice Marou Amadou, himself a former human rights activist, want, however, of undue government influence on the media and the judiciary to know nothing: “If a politician in the trade with foreign children is involved, then he must be prosecuted, regardless of his Person,” stresses Amadou, in an interview with DW. And looking at the media, he said that no Journalist because of his work been prosecuted. But who’s to ethnic hatred aufstachele or public order are endangered, must be before the law to answer to.
Tense Mood
The mood is suspenseful, as rarely before an election in Niger, as are most observers and actors agree. The official start of the electoral campaign on 31. January poured the government additional Oil into the fire. She explained that President Issoufou already in the first round win could. This Confidence appears to be not only supporters of the Opposition dared – the frustration over the poor record after five years Issoufou is everywhere in the country feel. Seini Oumarou, the candidate of the largest opposition party, the “MNSD Nasara”, looks as well as his mistrust of the government is confirmed. No party was strong enough to be in the first ballot to win: “The knowledge of the Ruling. Now, if a party already from the first round of voting emerge as the winner should, then would we say problems,” said Oumarou.
President Issoufou would like to have a second term.
The leader of the opposition is fomenting therefore the Fears of many live that it for the first time after elections in the violence that might come. Also well-known representatives of civil society such as the civil rights activist Moussa Tchangari confirm that a choice has never been so much anxiety trigger I have. The dispute is now under the surface, are also clearly ethnically marked. President Issoufou is part of the great Hausa-nation, Hama Amadou is representative of the Djerma.
A breakup of national unity, on the many live are very proud of, but also looks Tchangari not as immediate danger: “But there are people who in this direction tend, also as a result of the tough confrontation between the Ruling and the party’s Hama Amadou’s. With his arrest, this type of discourse actually broken up.” Tchangari hopes that live at the end of political maturity and show their frustration with the ballot box at the polling station air make – and not with a loud Protest or violence.
Citizens have other things to Worry about
On the dispute between the government and Opposition will shake many citizens ‘ only the head. Adamou Chaibou is the boss of the motorcycle taxi Union in the city of Konni, directly at the border to the large neighbor Nigeria. He desires, above all, that the politicians of its specific problems. After all, the work as a Motorradtaxifahrer, especially for young people a way out of poverty and crime, stresses Chaibou: “so Far we have for our business of the politicians ever get any help. We hope that God us politicians brought our profession to support it.”