Niamey, Wednesday
THE military ruler who seized power in a coup in January was declared president Wednesday, to immediate claims of fraud by opposition parties.
One of General Ibrahim Mainassara's first official acts was to ban public meetings and opposition parties. Soldiers lobbed tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators who threw stones at them during an opposition march to protest at the results. The airport remained open, although phone lines appeared to have been cut to some parts of the city.
Mainassara, 47, who abruptly dissolved the Independent National Electoral Commission on the second day of the vote on Monday, received 52% of the vote.
Mahamane Ousmane, Niger's first democratically-elected president, who was ousted by Mainassara, came in second with 20% of the vote. In third place with 16%t was Tandja Mamadou, a retired colonel who lost the presidential runoff to Ousmane in 1993.
The results were announced by the new electoral commission appointed by Mainassara only hours after he ousted the old one. Interior Minister Omar Ango accused opposition parties of infiltrating the electoral commission and releasing fraudulent preliminary results.
``We're going to march and hold meetings in spite of the ban by authorities,'' Boubacar Sidikou, a member of an opposition party of the fourth-place winner, said Wednesday.
The Federation of Labour Unions of Niger said its members would stage a general strike to demand the reinstatement of the first electoral commission and new elections. - AP
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