Politics

Niger’s coat of arms

Niger is a Democratic Republic. The executive power is shared by the President who is elected for a 5-year term and the Prime Minister who is appointed by the President. This system was put in place with the Constitution of October 31, 2010.

The legislation authority comes from the National Assembly which at this time holds 113 members. For any political party to gain a seat in this body, it must gather at least 5% of the total votes.  Afterwards it’s a majority system of representation and the members are also elected for 5-year terms.

Local authorities like mayors or other municipal officials are also elected by the inhabitants of the region they will represent. At this time there is a plan in place by the National Assembly to delegate some of its powers to the local officials in a decentralization movement. At this time each of the 36 districts of Niger are administered by a Governor appointed by the government to act as an intermediary between central authority and the local population.

Mahamaddou Issoufou is now the President (elected on March 20 2016) with Brigi Rafini as the appointed Prime Minister.

Much in accordance with all modern democracies the Judicial system is independent and consists of the Court of Appeals resolving issues of fact and law and the Supreme Court deciding on law and questions on the Constitution. It is interesting to now that Niger’s Judicial system is still based on the inquisitorial system of the French Code Napoleon.