By Abdoulaye Massalatchi
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's President Mamadou Tandja scored a landslide victory in a much-criticised referendum that will allow him to rule the Saharan country for three more years, provisional results showed on Friday.
Tandja, whose second and final elected term ends in December, has argued the people of Niger want him to stay to oversee multibillion-dollar oil, mining and infrastructure deals which could transform the impoverished country's economy.
The poll was widely criticised internationally on grounds it was a backward step for democracy, and threatened to provoke instability in a country which is the scene of al Qaeda activity and a Tuareg insurgency.
Provisional results showed 92 percent of voters in Tuesday's plebiscite backed Tandja staying on, the electoral commission said. It put turnout at 68 percent, a figure that was immediately questioned by an opposition coalition.
"The referendum is in violation of the constitution, is rejected by the people of Niger, and has no legitimacy," said anti-referendum coalition the CFDR. It said the poll had been tampered with, and that turnout was as low as 5 percent.
The United Nations, African Union, European Union, United States and former colonial power France have all criticised Tandja's plan to retain his grip on the presidency, which Niger's constitutional court said was unlawful.
The constitutional change approved in the plebiscite also allows the removal of presidential term limits altogether.
"The result is unprecedented in the history of our elections, and therefore this poll has been as good as we could have expected," Minister of Communication Mohamed Ben Omar said.
French state-owned energy firm Areva is building a 1.2 billion euro (1 billion pound) uranium mine in the north of the country, while China National Petroleum Corp last year signed a $5 billion oil deal with Niger.
A spokeswoman for Areva in Paris declined to comment on the political situation in Niger and said the company would continue its operations there as planned.(Writing by Daniel Magnowski; additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Paris; editing by Andrew Roche)
