[1] The presidential elections resulted in a victory for Mahamadou Issoufou of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS), who defeated Seyni Oumarou of the National Movement for the Society of Development (MNDS).

Military leaders then created the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, and announced that the constitution was suspended and state institutions, such as the National Assembly, would be dissolved.

[3] In September 2010, the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) announced that the first round of both the presidential and parliamentary election would be delayed by several weeks to 31 January 2011.

[1] Seventeen parties that had previously united against Tandja as the Coordination of Democratic Forces for the Republic announced on 17 July 2010 that they had formed "a strategic alliance" for the presidential election.

[4] Hama Amadou, who was Prime Minister from 1995 to 1996 and again from 2000 to 2007, returned from exile in France in March 2010 and created a new party, the Nigerien Democratic Movement for an African Federation (MODEN/FA).

On 11 July 2010, he publicly announced his desire to stand as the MODEN/FA candidate for the 2011 presidential election and vowed to "fight as hard as I can to win power".

[5] The junta kept Tandja in detention following the coup, making it impossible for him to pursue any political activity; his ousted party, the MNSD, repeatedly demanded his release.

The MNSD expressed outrage at the arrest of Oumarou and demanded his release; it said that the charge against him was a politically motivated effort to smear and marginalize the party.

[10] As the election date approached in January 2011, Issoufou, Oumarou, and Amadou were seen as the favourites; the latter two agreed to back each other if only one of them should enter the run-off.

They expressed their intentions to alleviate severe poverty and chronic food shortages and to better distribute the wealth produced through uranium mining so that it would be more beneficial to ordinary people.

Speaking at a press conference on the same day, Issoufou praised the conduct of the people during the election, saying that they had showed "great political maturity".