Niger – Government

The party composition of the new government in Niger has been announced. The report is here. The distribution of seats is as follows:

Parti Nigérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme (PNDS-Tarayya), nine ministers, including the new PM
Mouvement Démocratique Moden – Lumana Africa), five ministers
Alliance pour la Démocratie et le Progrès, two ministers
UDR-Tabbat, one minister
RSD-Gaskiya, one minister
Parti Progressiste nigérien section du Rassemblement démocratique africain (PPN-RDA), one minister
RDPJama’a, one minister
CDS-Rahama, one minister
There are two civil society ministers.

From the African Elections website, the parliamentary support for the above parties is as follows:

Parti Nigérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme (PNDS-Tarayya), 34 seats
Mouvement Démocratique Moden – Lumana Africa), 23 seats
Alliance pour la Démocratie et le Progrès, 8 seats
RDPJama’a, 7 seats
CDS-Rahama, 3 seats
UDR-Tabbat, 6 seats
RSD-Gaskiya, 0 seats
Parti Progressiste nigérien section du Rassemblement démocratique africain (PPN-RDA), 0 seats

If we apply Octavio Amorim Neto’s formula for cabinet coalescence (found in this paper), then we get a figure of 0.87. In other words, there is a good match between the governing parties’ representation in the legislature and their representation in the cabinet. This would be typical of premier-presidential regimes, like the new Nigerian system.

The two parties excluded from the cabinet are the MNSD-Nassara with 25 seats and the UNI with only one seat. So, even though the cabinet representation neatly matches parliamentary representation, in effect any displeasure with the government may provoke voters to support the main opposition party of former President Tandja Mamadou, who was ousted in the (benign) coup last year.

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