Mahamadou Issoufou

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Mahamadou Issoufou (born 1952) is a Nigerien politician. He is an ethnic Hausa from Northeastern Niger. He was Prime Minister from 1993 to 1994 and has run for President four times.

Born in town of Dandaji (Tahoua Department), Issoufou is leader of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism-Tarayya (PNDS-Tarayya), which is currently the largest opposition party in the National Assembly following elections held in 2004.

An engineer by trade, he served as National Director of Mines from 1980 to 1985 before becoming Secretary-General of the Mining Company of Niger (SOMAIR).

In February 1993, the country's first multiparty legislative and presidential elections were held. Issoufou's party, the PNDS, won 13 seats in the legislative election;^[1]^[2] together with other opposition parties, the PNDS then joined a coalition, the Alliance of the Forces of Change (AFC). This coalition held the majority of the newly elected seats in parliament.^[2] Later in February, Issoufou ran as the PNDS candidate in the presidential election. He placed third, winning 15.92% of the vote.^[1] The AFC then supported second-place finisher Mahamane Ousmane for president in the second round of the election, held on March 27.^[2] Ousmane won the election, defeating Tandja Mamadou, the candidate of the ruling party, the National Movement of the Development Society (MNSD); with the AFC holding a parliamentary majority, Issoufou became prime minister on 17 April 1993.

On 28 September 1994, Issoufou resigned in response to a decree from Ousmane a week earlier that weakened the powers of the prime minister, and his party withdrew from the governing coalition. This caused the coalition to lose its parliamentary majority, and eventually led to new parliamentary elections in January 1995. Issoufou and the PNDS forged an alliance with their old opponents, the MNSD, and in the January elections won a slight majority of seats;^[2]

He placed fourth (receiving only 7.60% of the vote) in the flawed 7–8 July 1996 presidential election that gave Maïnassara an outright victory.^[1] Along with the three other opposition candidates, Issoufou was placed under house arrest on the second day of polling and held for two weeks; shortly afterward he was again placed under house arrest because he refused to meet with Maïnassara. This time he was freed on the order of a judge in August.^[3]

Maïnassara was killed in another military coup in April 1999, and new elections were held in late in the year. In the first round, Issoufou placed second, winning 22.79% of the vote. He was later defeated by Tandja Mamadou in the run-off, capturing only 40.11% of the vote compared to Tandja's 59.89%.^[1]

In a repeat of the 1999 election, Issoufou placed second behind incumbent Tandja in the 2004 presidential election, winning 24.60% of the vote. He was defeated in the run-off winning 34.47% of the vote to Tandja's 65.53%;^[1] however, this was still considered an impressive result for Issoufou, since the other candidates had backed Tandja in the second round.^[4] Issoufou accused Tandja of using state funds for his campaign, along with other accusations of electoral misconduct.^[5]