Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou is no longer going to bid in the next Presidential election when his current term of office expires in 2021. Issoufou was first elected as president in 2011 and secured re-election in 2016. He is not eligible to run for a new term as per Niger’s constitution.
The ruling Nigerian Party for Democracy and Socialism, PNDS, elected interior minister, Mohamed Bazoum, as its presidential candidate for the next polls. Mr. Bazoum’s nomination was announced at the Palais des Congrès in the capital, Niamey, in front of thousands of activists from the 50 or so parties under the ruling coalition. The nomination announcement was initially planned for next year, but it was announced a year in advance.
He paid tribute to President Issoufou in his inaugural speech at a ceremony in Niamey on Sunday. He said the President’s decision to leave after the expiration of his mandate will be seen as progressive unlike others in the region who have reformed the constitutional laws to extend their term in office, reported Africa News.
The 59-year-old Bazoum is the founding member of the Nigerian party for democracy and socialism, the PNDS, in power. He has been Minister of the Interior since April 2016. He has also previously served as a deputy minister and holding the Minister of Foreign Affairs post.
Bazoum is currently the president of the ruling party. He has been labeled as one of the most powerful men in the country by political watchers.
Some of his main opponents have already been picked for the upcoming 2021 Presidential election. Mahamane Ousmane, opponent and former president from 1993 to 1996, has already announced that he would run for president. Seïni Oumarou, leader of the National Movement for the Development Society (MNSD), the party of ex-president Mamadou Tandja, was invested as a candidate last month.
