Niger in 2011 Presidential and legislative elections concluded a successful return to civilian rule. The new president, long-time opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou, gained a precarious hold on power as it would be difficult to keep all the promises made on the economic front and sections of the military remained unruly. In the summer, there was another coup threat, followed by several arrests. At the start of the year, a kidnapping incident involving two young Frenchmen rocked the capital and underlined the deterioration of security in the Sahelian region, made worse by the violent overthrow of the Kadhafi regime in Libya. A catastrophic harvest further complicated the country’s food security and presaged famine for 2012. General economic prospects for 2012 were boosted by the beginning of oil production and the start-up of a new uranium mine. Domestic Politics Ahead of the parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled to finalise the transition to civilian rule, the party alliance, ‘Coordination des Forces pour la Démocratie et la République’ (CFDR), came apart. The CFDR had been formed in 2009 to oppose the continued hold on power by President Tandja – deposed in 2010 by the military for his constitutional putsch the previous year – and that of his party, the ‘Mouvement National pour la Société du Développement’ (MNSD). Local elections, delayed into 2011 as a result of logistical problems, preceded the general contest on 11 January. While 80% of council seats were taken by the country’s four principal parties, the results signalled an end to the dominance of the MNSD, essentially in place since the end of the Cold War. The opposition ‘Parti Nigérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme’ (PNDS) of Mahamadou Issoufou gained the largest number of council seats. The MNSD lost half its © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004401440_005 38 niger in 2011 usual vote and came second and, surprisingly, the new ‘Mouvement Démocratique Nigérien’ (Moden-Lumana) of one-time MNSD col- league and rival of Mamadou Tandja, Hama Amadou, came third, cutting deep into the western region, from where the new MNSD leader – Tandja confidant Seyni Oumarou – hailed. The ‘Convention Démocratique et Sociale’ (CDS) of former National Assembly chair Mahamane Ousmane trailed behind. The relative decline of the MNSD sealed the fate of the CFDR pact. On 25 January, before the legislative elections and the first round of the presidentials – to be held on 31 January – Hama Amadou and Mahamane Ousmane broke with the PNDS and formed a new alliance with the MNSD called ‘Alliance pour la Réconciliation Nationale’ (ARN). They and Seyni Oumarou promised to sup- port whichever of them would make it to the presidential run-off. Isolating Mahamadou Issoufou, this reversal of alliance was meant to limit the damage to Ousmane’s CDS and maintain Hama Amadou’s influence, but it was condemned in the media – the MNSD had, after all, become tainted by Tandja’s 2009 constitutional coup. The local elections had already shown that, despite its decline, the MNSD could not be completely written off, and the general elections on 31 January confirmed this. In addition to Mahamane Issoufou, Seyni Oumarou, Hama Amadou and Mahamane Ousmane (all but Oumarou long-time established figures), six more people joined the race, including civil society activist Bayard Mariama Gamatié, Niger’s first female presidential contender. PNDS leader Mahamadou Issoufou gained the upper hand with 36.1% of the vote, followed by Seyni Oumarou with 23.2% and Hama Amadou with 19.8%. Mahamane Ousmane, whose activism had declined in the course of Tandja’s putsch, gained 8.3%, and the other candidates still less. In the parliamentary polls, the PNDS won a clear 34 seats (out of 113), doubling the number of its MPs in the National Assembly, fol- lowed by the MNSD and the new Moden of Hama Amadou. The CDS was practically annihilated. The remainder of the seats were shared between a couple of lesser parties..