Nigerien runoff: Bazoum in early lead

Nigerien ruling party’s candidate, Mohamed Bazoum, was slightly ahead of his challenger on Monday in the second round of the presidential election.

Electoral commission’s provisional results showed that with 62 of a total 266 constituencies counted, former Interior Minister Bazoum was ahead of former President Mahamane Ousmane with 51.49 percent of the votes.

• Ortom: Hold Bauchi gov responsible if I’m assassinated
• Fact check: Did Onyeama say Benin wanted to be Nigeria’s 37th state?

Nigeriens went to the polls Sunday in the second round of the country’s presidential election. The runoff is expected to pave the way for Nigerien first democratic transition of power since independence from France more than six decades ago.

Ousmane, who took nearly 17 percent of the votes in the first round, can count on the support of a coalition of 18 opposition parties as well as Hama Amadou previously thought to be the most formidable candidate against Bazoum.

Amadou had been banned from running because of a conviction for baby trafficking which he had slammed as politically motivated.