Moustapha Niasse

Moustapha Niasse (born November 4, 1939) is a Senegalese politician and diplomat who has been President of the National Assembly of Senegal since 2012. He served in the government of Senegal as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1978 to 1984 and again from 1993 to 1998. He was Prime Minister of Senegal for a few weeks in 1983, and he held that position again from 2000 to 2001.

Niasse was born in Keur Madiabel, Senegal. Graduated from Dakar Univercity and University of Paris. He was Director of the Presidential Cabinet from 1970 to 1979. In March 1979, he became Minister of Town Planning, Housing and Environment, serving in that position until September 1979, when he became Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was promoted to the rank of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in January 1981 and served in that position until April 1984. He briefly served as Prime Minister for a month in April 1983 prior to the abolition of that position. Niasse served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for a second time from June 1993 to July 1998. He then became Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in the Great Lakes countries until 1999.

During the late 1990s he broke with President Abdou Diouf and formed his own party, the Alliance of the Forces of Progress (AFP). He was a candidate in the February 2000 presidential election, in which against President Diouf and long-time opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade also competed. Niasse received third place and 16.77% of the vote, while Diouf and Wade went to a runoff. Niasse supported Wade in the second round, and Wade promised him the position of Prime Minister; his support contributed to Wade's victory over Diouf. After Wade took office in early April 2000, he appointed Niasse as his Prime Minister.

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