Niamey - Voters went to the polls in Niger on Sunday for an election that could seal a first peaceful handover between elected presidents, against the backdrop of a bloody insurgency. The West African country, unstable since gaining independence from France 60 years ago, is ranked the world’s poorest country according to the UN’s Human Development Index. Around 7.4 million people are registered to vote for the ballot for presidency, which coincides with legislative elections.  “I expect the Nigerien president to put security, health, progress and democracy first,” Aboubakar Saleh, a 37-year-old launderer, told AFP in Niamey without revealing who he voted for. Issaka Soumana, a 52-year-old lorry driver, said he wanted change. “Niger is not moving forward. Our country must rise,” he said, brandishing his thumb stained with ink to show he had cast his ballot. President Mahamadou Issoufou, who was elected in 2011 after the country’s last coup in 2010, is voluntarily stepping down after two five-year terms. “It is a special day for Niger which will experience for the first time in its history a democratic transition,” Issoufou said after voting at the city hall in Niamey. The frontrunner in the 30-strong field is his designated successor, Mohamed Bazoum, 60, a former interior and foreign minister. “It is a great pride that this date of December 27 has been respected,” Bazoum said after voting. Bazoum’s main rival, former prime minister Hama Amadou, was barred from contesting the vote on the grounds that in 2017 he was handed a 12-month jail term for  baby trafficking -- a charge he says was bogus.

Moroccan diplomats to visit Israel to discuss direct flights, opening offices