Niger President Issoufou Says He Will Not Seek Third Term

Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said  that he would not amend the constitution to allow him to seek a third term after his second and final mandate ends in 2021.

"One of my greatest ambitions is to organise free and transparent elections in 2021 and pass the baton to another Nigerien whom the Nigeriens will have chosen," the president said in an interview on state television on the occasion of the first anniversary of his inauguration for his second mandate on April 2, 2016.

The constitution of Niger limits the president to two terms of five years. Issoufou, 65, was re-elected in March last year following the end of his first term, albeit in elections boycotted by the opposition. According to Issoufou "Niger needs strong democratic institutions," and for this there needed to be alternations in power.


If he succeeds, he will be the first democratically elected president of of the vast west African country to ensure a peaceful transition of power to a new head of state.

His predecessor Mamadou Tandja was overthrown in 2010 by a military coup for having modified the constitution in order to remain in power at the end of his two legal five-year terms.