Niger has voted to return to the semi-presidential fold. On Sunday a referendum was held to approve the country’s new constitutional text, the text of the 7th Republic. The new constitution is semi-presidential. A copy of the text in French is available via the post here.

On Tuesday, the Commission Electorale Nationale Indépendante (Independent National Electoral Commission – CENI) announced that on the basis of a turnout of 52.65% the ‘yes’ vote won 90.18% of the valid votes cast. The final result will be proclaimed by the Constitutional Council, but there is no reason to expect that they will do anything other than validate the result proclaimed by the CENI.

This is the third time that Niger has adopted a semi-presidential constitution. The first was in December 1992. This constitution was suspended by the coup in 1996. A second semi-presidential constitution was adopted in 1999. This one was replaced by the presidential constitution in 2009. Following the coup earlier this year, a third semi-presidential constitution was subsequently drawn up. The text of this constitution was put to a referendum on Sunday.

Technically, the military authority is due to hand back power in April 2011. So, the vote has not restored semi-presidentialism in Niger quite yet. Presidential and legislative elections are slated for 31 January 2011. Given the military leader, Salou Djibo, recently arrested his number two on suspicion of plotting a coup, the situation in Niger is still very unstable. However, the leadership has consistently affirmed that it will not stand at the presidential election and that there will be both a real return to democracy and civilian rule in April next year.