West African economic bloc Ecowas on Tuesday suspended Niger after President Mamadou Tandja went ahead with legislative elections despite calls to delay the vote over an opposition boycott.
Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) told Tandja at the weekend to delay the vote and open dialogue with political foes or risk imposition of ”full and automatic sanctions”.
”The resolution of the summit was clear and precise,” Ecowas commission head Mohamed Ibn Chambas told Agence France-Presse.
Niger’s opposition boycotted Tuesday’s polls in protest at Tandja’s recent move to extend his mandate, which would have run out in December, through an earlier referendum that it condemned as a ”coup d’etat”.
At Saturday’s emergency meeting, leaders from the 15-country bloc imposed limited sanctions on Niamey, barring it from putting up candidates for posts in international organisations or hosting Ecowas meetings.
The summit said failure by Tandja to comply with its decision ”would lead to the automatic and immediate imposition of full sanctions … and a referral of the Niger file to the AU for similar action”.
The African Union, Ecowas and the European Union, a major donor, all urged a delay in order to revive political dialogue between Tandja and the opposition, but Interior Minister Albade Abouba said the call to postpone the election is ”inappropriate”.
”You can not ask people to go back on their word. Elections are not being held for President Tandja,” Abouba told reporters.
”The threats of sanctions are unfounded,” he said earlier on Tuesday.
The polls, to fill 113 parliamentary seats, come after Tandja dissolved Parliament in June, two months before he held the referendum to prolong his mandate.
Tandja defied all international, regional and domestic opposition to his plans to extend his stay in office beyond the two terms stipulated in the constitution, winning approval for his moves in a much-criticised referendum in August.
The 71-year-old Tandja and former army colonel cast his vote early Tuesday at Niamey city hall flanked by heavy security and saying he hoped for a ”fair and transparent” vote. — Sapa-AFP