Opposition leader freed

Opposition party leader Issoufou Bachar, head of the Alliance nigerienne pour la democratie et le progres, was freed Monday after three days in detention, news sources in Niamey told IRIN. His release came just days before the first round of presidential elections due on 17 October. News sources said no official reason was given for his arrest which, Bachar’s wife had told the private FM radio station, R et M, occurred on Friday as he was on his way home from a mosque. AFP reported that Bachar’s party had been the only one to advocate openly a vote against a new constitution adopted in a referendum on 18 July, three months after the military coup in which then president Ibrahim Bare Mainassara was killed. The constitution, approved by some 89.57 percent of the 4.2 million voters, guarantees amnesty for people involved in this year’s coup as well as the one in 1996 that had brought Mainassara to power. It also allows for power-sharing between the president and prime minister. Bacher, a former ambassador to Libya, was recalled on 4 October by the head of the head of the military government, Major Daouda Malam Wanke.