Jailed opposition candidate is determined to face incumbent Mahamadou Issoufou.

The second round of the presidential election in Niger appears to be one of the most complicate in the country’s history as the opposition coalition has maintained its decision to boycott the election.  

However, the opposition candidate Hama Amadou who won 17.7 per cent of the votes cast in the first round the election says he will participate in the second round of the election on March 20. “COPA has just said it is suspending its participation in the process, but Hama is leaving them for the election,” Africa news quoted Mossi Boubacar,  Hama Amadou’s lawyer as saying.  “Hama says he will not withdraw,” stressed the lawyer in reaction to the President of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Niger (INEC), who said on Thursday that he is “determined” to organize the second ballot even without the opposition. Hama Amadou is in prison since November 2015 on charges of baby-trafficking.

Incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou who scored 48.4 percent in the first round of the poll is largely favoured in the second round of the poll. He has been campaigning unperturbed. While the opposition is reflecting on to participate or not to participate, he is focused and also busy building alliances to have a landslide victory in Sunday’s poll.