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Country Summary
General Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, who led the overthrow of former president Mahamane Ousmane in January, claimed an outright victory in the July elections, which were widely viewed as fraudulent. Gen. Mainassara had placed his opponents under house arrest and the army commandeered the ballot boxes in many areas of the country. Mainassara declared himself the winner shortly after he dissolved the Independent National Electoral Commission, imposing a nationwide ban on demonstrations and public gatherings, and cutting international telephone lines. He reversed the ban and the telephone restrictions on Oct. 4, in preparation for November legislative elections which opposition parties boycotted. Voter turnout was low, and the ruling party swept to victory, thereby creating a new parliament.Press freedom was imperiled following the presidential elections as the new government attempted to maintain tight control over the media. Soldiers stormed and occupied independent radio stations and harassed, arrested, and detained both local and foreign journalists. The government blocked the media’s access to certain regions of the country, and the director general of Niger’s radio and television broadcasting agency, Maitourare Abdou Saleye, canceled opposition parties’, unions’, and associations’ access to the national radio and television network.
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