Niger opposition slams presidential 'coup'

Opponents of Niger's President Mamadou Tandja on Saturday slammed his assumption of emergency powers as a coup d'etat, calling on the army not to obey him and urging international powers to intervene.

The Front for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), a grouping of opposition parties, "condemns the coup d'etat which President Tandja has carried out and calls on everyone to mobilise to prevent by all legal means this attempt to eliminate the rule of law and democracy," FDD head Mahamadou Issoufou said.

He called on "the security and defence forces to refuse to obey the orders of a man who has made the deliberate choice of violating the constitution and who has now forfeited all political and moral legitimacy."

The FDD also urged the international community to "take all possible measures to restore a state of legality and democracy."

Tandja, a 71-year-old retired colonel, acted late Friday after a failed bid to prolong his stay in office by changing the constitution to allow him to run for a third term in elections due at the end of this year.

He said in a television address that he was invoking "article 58 of the constitution" giving him special powers "because the independence of the country is threatened."

Tandja defeated Issoufou in the 1999 and 2004 presidential elections and was due to step down at the end of this year.

"We are at an institutional impasse, which justified the president's address to the nation.... He cannot accept that Niger is blocked by an act of sabotage," Communications Minister Mohammed Ben Omar said on Friday.