Niamey – Nigerien opposition has on Wednesday in Niamey announced the rejection of the provisional presidential election results, published by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), terming them as fanciful.
Nigeriens voted on Sunday in the first round of the presidential elections in which 15 candidates, including the incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou, contested.
The spokesman for the opposition alliance, Coalition for Change in 2016 (COPA 2016), Amadou Boubacar Cisse, who was also a candidate, said his coalition does not recognise the results announced by CENI.
The opposition decried numerous irregularities that included sudden increase of polling stations in some regions, shortage of ballot papers for the opposition candidates.
They added that it also include high number of double registered voters and intimidation of opposition supporters.
The spokesman stressed that what was announced by CENI was totally contrary to what was expressed in the ballot.
He further called on the opposition supporters to resist and reject the results.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
The spokesman noted that on Tuesday, CENI announced that the provisional voter turnout during Sunday’s elections was 71.2 per cent.
Since Monday, CENI has been releasing results of the presidential elections at its headquarters in Niamey.
The initial results from 20 communes out of 308 show president Issoufou leading his fellow contestants.
By Tuesday, the president was leading with 40.18 percent, followed by former speaker of Parliament Hama Amadou, who has 29.17 per cent and Seini Oumarou with 12.08 per cent.
Meanwhile, all election observer missions deployed in Niger, among them the AU, the Economic Community of West African States, the West African Economic and Monetary Union, have hailed the peaceful conduct of the elections, in spite of some logistic challenges.
They urged the candidates to use legal means to resolve any electoral dispute. (Xinhua/NAN)
