West Africa presses for 'credible' elections

Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the outgoing president of ECOWAS, said they want a transition to be driven by credible elections open to all.

The head of a west African regional bloc said he had pressed for credible elections in Niger during a meeting with the leader of the military junta which toppled president Mamadou Tandja.

"We want a transition ... to be driven by credible, transparent elections open to all," Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the outgoing president of the Economic Commission for West African States (ECOWAS) said on radio after the talks late Friday.

Chambas, along with the chief mediator in the Niger crisis, former Nigerian military leader, Abdulsalami Abubakar, met the junta leader major Salou Djibola, who ousted strongman Tandja in a coup staged on Thursday.

ECOWAS-mediated talks between then president Tandja's government and the opposition to end a political standoff had been suspended last week, having repeatedly stalled since they began on December 21.

The junta leader "was open and encouraged this mediation" said Chambas.

"The outcome everyone is waiting for is a transition that could lead to the adoption of a new constitution and new elections," said Senegalese Foreign Minister Madicke Niang, who also attended the meeting.

Tandja had changed the constitution last year to hold on to his post beyond a 10-year-limit, tightening his grip on power in a move that infuriated democratic forces and widened the chasm between him and the opposition.