Niger opposition urges resistance after presidential 'coup'

Niger's opposition yesterday slammed President Mamadou Tandja's attempts to cling to office by assuming emergency powers and called for mass resistance, including military disobedience.

Long-time presidential hopeful Mahamadou Issoufou, head of the Front for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), a grouping of opposition parties, condemned what he called a "coup d'etat" by Tandja.

He called on the army not to obey orders and the international community to intervene following Tandja's televised announcement late Friday that he was acting "because the independence of the country is threatened".

Tandja, a 71-year-old retired army colonel, spoke after the Constitutional Court refused to reverse an earlier ruling outlawing his plan for a referendum to change the constitution so that he can run for a third term in elections due at the end of this year.

His assumption of emergency powers allows him to rule by decree without parliament, which he already dissolved on May 26 as opposition built to his plans. New parliamentary elections have been scheduled for August 20.

Issoufou called on "the security and defence forces to refuse to obey the orders of a man who has made the deliberate choice of violating the constitution and who has now forfeited all political and moral legitimacy". The FDD also urged international powers to "take all possible measures to restore a state of legality and democracy" following the president's move after weeks of high-stakes political drama in the troubled west African nation.

Tandja was due to step down by December 22 but has been manoeuvring for months to stay on in a legal battle that has alienated even some of his closest allies.

The main party backing him, the Democratic and Social Convention (CDS) announced last Thursday it was withdrawing its eight ministers from Niger's government in protest.

Against a background of strikes by thousands of workers against Tandja across the country, the CDS warned of "the real risks that these events represent to political and institutional stability and peace".

It said it had set up a Movement for the Defence of Democracy and the Republic with eight other parties to work for strict respect of the constitution in this large, deeply poor, landlocked nation on the southern edge of the Sahara.