Niger holds presidential, legislative elections

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Voters queue up to get accredited before casting their votes at a polling station during the presidential and National Assembly Elections in Abuja, capital of Nigeria. (File)

Niamey, (Asian independent) More than 7.4 million Nigerien people voted on Sunday in the presidential and legislative elections.

The first round of Niger’s presidential and legislative elections started around 8 a.m. at about 26,000 polling stations nationwide, Xinhua news agency reported.

Voters will choose among 30 candidates the successor of the incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou, who is not running for a third term, as well as 171 representatives in parliament among 4,205 contestants representing more than one hundred political parties.

Seini Oumarou, former Prime Minister of Niger from the National Movement for the Development of Society, former president Mahamane Ousmane, Mohamed Bazoum from the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, and Albade Abouba from the Patriotic Movement for the Republic are main competitors for the presidential election.