Mohamed Bazoum Wins Niger’s Presidential RunoffChannels Television Updated February 23, 2021 Niger’s presidential candidate Mohamed Bazoum speaks to media outside the polling station after voting during Niger’s election run-off, in Niamey on February 21, 2021.Issouf SANOGO / AFP Former interior minister Mohamed Bazoum, the candidate of Niger’s ruling PNDS party, has won the presidential elections with 55.75 per cent of the second-round vote, according to provisional figures published on Tuesday.

Opposition candidate Mahamane Ousmane picked up 44.25 per cent, Issaka Souna, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), said in an announcement attended by senior officials and members of the diplomatic corps.“(These) results are provisional and must be put to the Constitutional Court for its assessment,” Souna said.Earlier, Ousmane’s campaign manager, Falke Bacharou, said the results were an “electoral holdup” and urged the public to protest against it.

The elections, which were held on December 27 followed by a runoff on Sunday, have been showcased as the first democratic transition in the coup-prone Sahel state’s history.

Bazoum, 60, who is outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou’s right-hand man, picked up just over 39 percent of the vote in the first round.Ousmane, 71, became the country’s first democratically elected president in 1993, only to be toppled in a coup three years later.He won just under 17 percent in the first round but gained pledges of support from a coalition of 18 opposition parties in the days before the runoffThe world’s poorest nation according to the UN’s development rankings for 189 countries, Niger is also struggling with jihadist insurgencies that have spilled over from Mali in the west and Nigeria in the southeast.

US law enforcement agencies are screening National Guard members to make sure they do not pose a security risk during President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, a four-star general said in comments broadcast Sunday. Following the January 6 riots at the Capitol building in support of outgoing President Donald Trump, it emerged that some of those involved had current or former ties to the military.

General Daniel Hokanson, who heads the National Guard Bureau, was asked by CBS News on Sunday if troops were being checked as they arrived in Washington. “In coordination with the Secret Service and the FBI, they’re screening all the personnel that are coming in,” Hokanson said. Much of Washington resembles a fortified compound in a war zone, with most of the downtown area blocked off, security fences topped by razor wire and about 25,000 National Guard troops deployed to the capital. In a recent letter to all US troops, the Joint Chiefs of Staff told service members the January 6 riots were “inconsistent with the rule of law” and said troops “must embody the values and ideals of the nation.”

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen retired General Lloyd Austin, who oversaw U.S. forces in the Middle East under President Barack Obama, to be his defense secretary, two people familiar with the decision said on Monday.

Austin, who would be the first Black U.S. secretary of defense, was a surprise pick over Michele Flournoy, a former top Defense Department official who was considered the leading contender for the job.

Flournoy would have been the first woman defense secretary.

The news was first reported by Politico.

Austin, who retired in 2016, will need a waiver from Congress since it has been less than the required seven years since he served.

He would be the second Pentagon chief in four years to need a waiver, after President Donald Trump picked James Mattis, a retired Marine general, to be his first defense secretary.

The nomination of Austin, who headed U.S. Central Command under Obama, could draw fire from some progressive groups given his role in retirement on the board of a number of companies, including weapons maker Raytheon Technologies Corp.

But Biden and Austin developed a working relationship during the Obama administration and the retired general has been advising the transition team on national security issues, one of the people familiar with the decision to name him said.

Biden’s decision to nominate the first Black defense secretary in Austin helps him make good on his diversity promise.