Niger election gives ruling party large majority

The head of the Independent Election Commission, Moumouni Hamidou, said Tandja's party took 76 seats out of 113.

Results of elections boycotted by the opposition and condemned abroad gave the ruling party of Niger's President Mamadou Tandja a clear majority, an electoral official said Saturday.

The head of the Independent Election Commission, Moumouni Hamidou, said Tandja's party took 76 seats out of 113, while five small parties allied to his regime shared another 25.

For the first time a dozen independents also won seats in the parliament following Tuesday's poll, staged in defiance of Niger's neighbours and the international community, which had called for a delay.

Critics see the legislative poll as helping Tandja, 71, to potentially stay in office for the rest of his life in this uranium-producing but desperately poor west African country.

Tandja organised the election to replace a parliament he dissolved in June after it opposed his plans to extend his term beyond the 10-year limit.

He also dissolved the Constitutional Court after it declared his project illegal and held a referendum in August which allowed him to serve another three years beyond December, when his second term expires.

The 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) expelled Niger after it held the election and said it would not recognise the outcome of the vote.

Tandja's stance also infuriated Niger's main aid donor, the European Union, which on Thursday repeated its threat to sever ties to pressure Niamey to restore constitutional order.

The results showed a global turnout of 51.27 percent, Hamidou said.

Fewer people bothered to cast their ballots in the capital while turnout was heavy in the countryside where the most impoverished live.

The latest United Nations human development index report, which measures standards of living, placed Niger at the bottom of its list, making it the worst country in the world to live in.

Despite the uranium, the majority of the 15 million people in this landlocked country on the edge of the Sahara desert live on subsistence farming, continually threatened by drought and locusts.

However under Tandja Niger has enjoyed rare stability in a region that was better known for coups and military takeovers, despite a low-level rebellion by Saharan Tuaregs seeking better integration in the army and the mining sector.