Mahamadou Issoufou

Mahamadou Issoufou (born 1 January 1952) is a Nigerien politician who served as the president of Niger from 7 April 2011 to 2 April 2021.

Issoufou, an ethnic Hausa, was born on 1 January 1952, in the town of Dandaji in Tahoua Department.

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

He is married to Aïssata Issoufou Mahamadou, a chemist, and to second wife, Dr. Lalla Malika Issoufou, a physician.

He led the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS-Tarayya), a social democratic party, from its foundation in 1990 until his election as president in 2011.

Issoufou was the prime minister of Niger from 1993 to 1994, president of the National Assembly from 1995 to 1996, and he was a candidate in each presidential election from 1993 to 2016.

In February 1993, the country's first multiparty legislative and presidential elections were held.

In the parliamentary election, Issoufou's party, the PNDS, won 13 seats in the National Assembly, and Issoufou himself won a seat as a PNDS candidate in Tahoua constituency.

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 the National Assembly.

Later in February 1993, Issoufou ran as the PNDS candidate in the presidential election.

He placed third, winning 15.92 percent of the vote.

The AFC then supported second-place finisher Mahamane Ousmane for president in the second round of the election, held on 27 March.

Ousmane won the election, defeating Tandja Mamadou, the candidate of 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 the PNDS withdrew from the governing coalition.

As a result, the coalition lost its parliamentary majority and Ousmane called a new parliamentary election to be held in January 1995.

Issoufou and the PNDS forged an alliance with their old opponents, the MNSD, and in the January 1995 election that alliance won a slight majority of seats; Issoufou was then elected as President of the National Assembly.

The opposition's victory in the election led to cohabitation between President Ousmane and a government, backed by a parliamentary majority, that opposed him; the result was political deadlock.

With the dispute between President Ousmane and the government deepening, on 26 January 1996 Issoufou requested that the Supreme Court remove Ousmane from office for alleged incapacity to govern.

A day later, on 27 January 1996, Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara seized power in a military coup.

Issoufou, along with President Ousmane and Prime Minister Hama Amadou, was arrested and subsequently placed under house arrest until April 1996.

They were all put on television by the military regime in February 1996 to endorse the official view that the coup was caused by flaws in the political system and that changes in the system were needed.

Issoufou placed fourth (receiving only 7.60% of the vote) in the flawed and controversial 7–8 July 1996 presidential election that gave Maïnassara an outright victory.

Along with the three other opposition candidates, Issoufou was placed under house arrest on the second day of polling and held for two weeks.

Afterward, he refused to meet with Maïnassara, unsuccessfully appealed to the Supreme Court for the election to be annulled, and the PNDS called for demonstrations.

On 26 July he was again placed under house arrest, along with another leading PNDS member, Mohamed Bazoum; they were freed on the order of a judge on 12 August.

Following a pro-democracy demonstration on 11 January 1997, Issoufou was arrested along with Ousmane and Tandja and held until 23 January.

During the presidency of Mamadou Tandja (1999–2010), Issoufou was the main opposition leader.

Having left power by respecting the constitution limiting him to two presidential terms thus leading to the first ever democratic transition of power in the country, in March 2021 he received the Ibrahim Prize awarded for good governance, democratic election and respect of term limits.

Maïnassara was killed in another military coup in April 1999, and new elections were held in late in the year.

In the first round of the presidential election, held in October, Issoufou placed second, winning 22.79% of the vote.

He was later defeated by Mamadou Tandja in the November run-off, capturing 40.11% of the vote compared to Tandja's 59.89%.

He was backed in the second round by the unsuccessful first round candidates Hamid Algabid, Moumouni Adamou Djermakoye, and Ali Djibo, while Tandja received Ousmane's support.

After the announcement of the provisional results showing Tandja's victory, Issoufou accepted them and congratulated Tandja.

In the November 1999 parliamentary election, Issoufou was again elected to the National Assembly as a PNDS candidate in Tahoua constituency.

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%; however, that was still considered an impressive result for Issoufou, as he had substantially increased his share of the vote even though the other first round candidates had backed Tandja in the second round.

Issoufou, who targeted corruption in his campaign, accused Tandja of using state funds for his own campaign, along with other accusations of electoral misconduct, and said that the election was not as transparent as the 1999 election.

In the December 2004 parliamentary election, Issoufou was re-elected to the National Assembly as a PNDS candidate in Tahoua constituency.

In 2009, the PNDS strongly opposed Tandja's efforts to hold a referendum on the creation of a new constitution that would allow him to run for re-election indefinitely.