Campaigning has begun for Niger's October 20 parliamentary election, with President Mamadou Tandja calling on voters in the uranium-mining country to give him and his party the power to complete large-scale projects. Last month Tandja used the same rationale for holding a referendum on changing the constitution to give himself three more years in power without holding an election, and shifting to a fully presidential system of government.
This extension of his authority has drawn protests in Niger and criticism from abroad on the ground that it is undermining democracy, but the mining and energy firms spending billions of dollars in Niger have shown no sign of pulling back. "By giving the government a comfortable majority, you are without doubt giving it the means the accomplish its goals," Tandja said on television late on Sunday, referring to "big tasks".
During the campaign for the much-criticised referendum which he won with more than 90 percent of the vote, Tandja concentrated on what he said was the need for him to oversee the mining and infrastructure projects that could transform the economy of one of the world's poorest countries.
Among those are a deal with French state-owned energy firm Areva, which is building a 1.2 billion euro ($1.72 billion) uranium mine in Niger's north, home to a simmering rebellion by Tuareg dissidents, while China National Petroleum Corp last year signed a $5 billion oil agreement.
Opposition coalition the Co-ordination of Democratic Forces for the Republic (CFDR) has called for a boycott of the October 20 election, and denounced the August referendum as a "coup d'etat". "The CFDR cannot vouch for any election organised on the basis of the new constitution," it said in a statement.